He said even on occasions when the government media has attended their events, sometimes the news would never be broadcast.
Gobotswang says he is appalled by the unfair coverage of the government media. He said there was a news blackout on the BCP Democracy Alert No.1 document on the erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law.
The BCP leader said both Radio Botswana (BTV) nd the Daily News did not report on the recent BCP/New Labour Party workshop for unexplained reasons. The workshop was held in Gaborone last week.
We experienced a similar thing when we published the report on the Relocations of the Gana and Gwi from the CKGR, he said.
Gobotswang said what makes the scenario amazing is that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is getting full coverage from the government media.
He claimed that the BDP officials get full coverage when they hold party events. He argued that the same courtesy is not extended to their party.
He said on Monday evening, Botswana Television carried a story showing the BDP Secretary General, Daniel Kwelagobe addressing a BDP meeting in the Boteti area.
This came as a shock to us given the Btv standing policy of covering President Festus Mogae and his deputy, Ian Khama.
Although we appreciate that the leader of the BCP and President Mogae may not necessarily get equal coverage, we strongly feel it is unfair for Mogae who is also the leader of the BDP and his deputy to get 100 percent coverage while the leader of the BCP and his deputy get zero coverage.
He said surprisingly, the coverage appears to be extended to the Secretary General of the BDP while his BCP counterparts get zero coverage.
Gobotswang said the worrying trend is vividly articulated in the BCP Democracy Alert document that states that journalists working for the state, controlled media are constantly pressed to subject the opposition to extensive editing and sometimes black out while the ruling BDP has a free reign.
The (BCP) leader said the public media must be freed from state control in order to serve the nation and not the selfish interests of the BDP.
The BDP must heed our call and turn back from the authoritarian route that they have chosen to take, he said.
When contacted, the Director of Broadcasting Services, Bapasi Mphusu said he was still on leave.
Acting director, Banyana Segwe was not available for comment.
Opposition parties have not always had an easy relationship with the government media. At some stage, this led to the Botswana National Front (BNF) boycotting the Sunday political programme, Matlho-a-Phage.
The BCP has always threatened not to participate in some of the Btv programmes because the party activists would be censored.
Just before the 2004 general election, the Minister of Local Government, Margaret Nasha allegedly ordered a repeat of a programme recording because she did not want Gaborone Central MP, Dumelang Saleshando to feature.
The programme had to be reproduced to exclude Saleshando who was in the previous debate.
