Last week, Chief Justice Gaolapelwe Gee Ketlogetswe offered a bold reimagining of a popular journalistic axiom.
In a speech marking World Press Freedom Day, he subverted the age-old refrain that "the pen is mightier than the sword" with a chilling observation: “The advert is mightier than the pen.” In that moment, Justice Ketlogetswe captured, with surgical precision, the silent crisis threatening journalism in Botswana and around the world, the overpowering influence of economic control over editorial independence. His words were not merely rhetorical. They harkened back to a defining moment in 2001, when The Botswana Guardian and Midweek Sun faced an existential threat after publishing stories that displeased the powers that be.
The government - then, as now, the largest advertiser - pulled its advertising from the two publications, nearly collapsing them. This action sent an unmistakable message: cross certain lines and the lifeblood of your business - advertising revenue - will be cut off. Today, two decades later, the issue has metastasised.
Across Botswana and many developing democracies, private media outlets remain precariously dependent on state advertising to stay afloat. Big business, too, often wields its cheque book to sanitise coverage or silence critical voices.
The result is a form of economic censorship that operates with greater subtlety but perhaps equal force as direct political suppression.
Such creeping influence has birthed two deeply corrosive trends within newsrooms: self-censorship and the brown envelope syndrome. Journalists, acutely aware of the financial vulnerabilities of their employers, often choose silence over scrutiny. Investigative stories die on the editor’s desk. “Sensitive” topics are buried under euphemism or not pursued at all. Meanwhile, poorly paid reporters, operating without contracts or job security, become vulnerable to inducements that compromise integrity.
When ethics collide with hunger, hunger too often wins. Such conditions are antithetical to the ideals of a free press in a democracy. The media is not meant to be a cheerleader nor a passive observer. Its constitutional role is that of a watchdog, fearless in holding the powerful to account, unyielding in its pursuit of truth and independent in its editorial judgment.
But how can the media perform this role when it is shackled by financial dependency? When the threat of pulled advertising hangs over every critical headline?
The root of the problem lies in the economic model that sustains journalism. Print media revenues are shrinking, operating costs are rising and digital transformation, though promising, is uneven and underfunded. Public service broadcasting is often politicised while independent outlets struggle to scale without state or corporate patronage.
What is needed is a multifaceted approach. First, we must advocate for transparent and fair distribution of government advertising, guided by clear criteria, not political favour. Second, media sustainability funds, ideally managed independently, can support public-interest journalism without strings attached.
Unlike in Botswana where John McManus's (1994) Market Theory for News Creation provides a theoretical underpinnings for news production driven by audience numbers, Germany offers another model for media funding, the Cooperative Society Model whereby members of the public form a cooperative society and contribute or make donations to the running of a newspaper (die tageszeitung or taz).Third, the private sector must be encouraged to support media as part of their corporate social responsibility, not merely as a vehicle for image management.
Most importantly, we must reaffirm the societal value of journalism. A democracy without a free, independent and economically secure press is a democracy in peril. Justice Ketlogetswe’s words should serve as a warning, not just to journalists but to citizens and policymakers alike.
When the advert becomes mightier than the pen, the public loses its voice and accountability fades into silence. The pen may still be mighty but only if we protect it from the silent sword of economic coercion. *Thomas Thos Nkhoma is MISA-Botswana national governing council chairperson
