Mr President, please fire Kaboeamodimo!

| Wednesday May 12, 2010 00:00

You Mr Kaboeamodimo has failed to offer fair coverage to the warring BDP factions; you have failed dismally to offer balanced coverage on the Kalafatis murder case, and have equally failed miserably to report fairly on the BDP breakaway party and in your Botswana Guardian letter of May 7th, you have in effect conceded that you were the one responsible for repeating BDP propaganda on Btv news on subsequent days. We can now approach you directly and plead with you: 'Please Mr Kaboeamodimo, unshackle our airwaves!'

We are equally emboldened now to approach His Excellency the President and to him make a bold and unequivocal call: 'Here is a man who through his failure to represent the national diversity of opinions on national television and radio, and through his reckless decisions and statements threatens to drag in the mud the democratic credentials of our country.

Here is a man who through his incompetence has created a false impression that the national radio and television are gagged by political interference from the ruling party.

Here is a man who calls the lowest journalistic principle, the highest standards; after he has repeatedly failed to give each side a chance to state its case and allow the public to make informed judgements.

 With his worm's view of journalistic ideals, it is clear, he is beyond redemption. Please Mr President fire Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo for he misrepresents your democratic ideals as well as those of the country.

Please Mr President fire Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo for through his failure to broadcast alternative views, he contradicts our national ideals of a tolerant nation captured in Vision 2016. The man is incapable of appreciating that tolerance is by definition, recognition of differing and sometimes unacceptable positions. Fire this man! Fire him!'

For God's sake Mr Kaboeamodimo, you are a public servant - at least allow the public space to question and critic what you do. Ours is a democracy; and at the heart of a democracy is a balanced coverage of news.

You see Mr Kaboeamodimo, the danger with unbalanced coverage is this: it creates an impression, whether true or false, that someone somewhere is afraid to engage in a fair debate. It wrongly implies that someone is scared that in the event that a different viewpoint came into the public domain, their personal view may not appear formidable after all.

Let's face it; the BDP government is solid and possesses a strong culture and history. With its horde of lawyers and hard-hitting politicians, it is not afraid to debate and sufficiently engage those who differ with it. Am I wrong? It certainly does not need your interventions that masquerade as 'national building'.

Mr Kaboeamodimo what this country needs to grow and develop its democracy is more debate and not less; more information disclosure and not less.

You will build this nation better, if you encouraged accountability and engagement through giving divergent viewpoints equal playing field on the government press.

The Botswana public is complex and discerning. It is able to differentiate the idiot from the genius.

Please defend our democratic values which are deeply rooted in the Setswana culture and captured in the famous mafoko a kgotla a mantle otlhe and mmualebe o bua la gagwe gore mona-lentle a le tswe and go ahead and unshackle the airwaves.

Don't establish yourself as the government censor-man whose principal role is to determine what news are appropriate for national consumption and which ones are not. Just broadcast news and let the people judge.

Because of your 'editorial judgements' we are increasingly irritated by our television station's news coverage and not because of the quality government-employed journalists, but because of your so called 'editorial discretion and profession', a sad euphemism for unfair standards.

You do observe accurately that you are 'a state-owned public media group' and let's add: also funded by the tax payer - and some of those tax payers have alternative views to the ones you wish to shield.

As public asserts, both the Btv and Radio Botswana must reflect the multiplicity of national views equally. Please broadcast national news regardless of whether you think they will infuriate or please the government. Allow alternative voices to speak clearly. Let the idiot and the genius speak. Let their voices be heard unmistakably through the airwaves so that they will be equally understood and judged. While you are at it, please appreciate the importance of the independent press.

You may call them 'scandal scavengers' and insinuate that they are 'in the business of telling lies, sensationalizing and misleading the public in order to maximise... sales' but they are there for your own good, even though that may not be obvious to you yet. Their reporting is riddled by peccadilloes sometimes - so is yours.

So next time you attack the private press and members of the public who are critical of the way you control Btv and Radio Botswana, please sir, do remember that their taxes pay your salary - at least treat them with some degree of respect for they are intelligent men and women just like you.

In being critical, they are only exercising their democratic right to speak freely in their own country to their own employee since they still have hope in their government. In the meantime I sit here praying, waiting, and looking forward to read with much delight - in the private press of course - of your retirement.

Dr Thapelo J OtlogetsweGaborone Central