Khama Takes Swipe At Private Media

CHAKALISA DUBE
Staff Writer | Monday July 8, 2013 00:00

 

This was suggested by his utterances at the party's 35th national congress here on Friday.According to Khama, who devoted a significant part of his speech to expressing his dislike for the local media and implying that journalists working for the private press have become masters of misinformation and deception.

In fact to say that Khama was reiterating the government's recent hard stance against the local private media will not be an understatement.In his lengthy address to the party faithful, Khama described the local media as unpatriotic and said that it was dominated by greedy individuals who want to lead the people astray. Khama also believes that local private media houses are dominated by below average thinking journalists.'These people are shallow in their reasoning and do not contribute anything that is good to the society.

They have blinded themselves with negativity in their desperate attempt to discredit us in order to promote the opposition.'But there is something good that comes out of bad. In their case this constant criticism contributes to this country's high ranking for freedom of the press and freedom of speech,' Khama said to the applause of the BDP die-hards.The president did not spare opposition parties in his verbal onslaught.

He said opposition parties have also mastered the craft of misinforming the public with a view of tarnishing the 47-year-old uninterrupted regime of his party and in the process scoring cheap political points.Khama, who early this year in a shock move granted a range of interviews to various local newspapers and radio stations, said such parties do so (misinform public) with the help of some members of the private press.In another revelation Khama labelled local trade union leaders as people who embrace anarchy and undermine the Constitution of the country.'Some unions' recent attacks of the judiciary was unwarranted and reprehensible. I note that the spate of attacks following the unions losses in the Court of Appeal against the government were both political and personal,' he said.

Khama also accused some local union leaders of misusing union funds derived from member subscriptions.Since Khama assumed leadership of the country the relationship between the government and private media has reached an all time low. Just last week the government issued various statements in the state media critisicing some private publications.The government said that some publications among them Mmegi and one of the local leading tabloids The Voice are irresponsible and malicious in their reporting.