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Media Practitioners’ Bill Should be Trashed |
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Government has published a Media Bill whose sole objective is to control the media, in spite of the fancy words that it has employed to convince the public and the media that it is in both their interests.
The recent workshop that was sponsored by the Media Publishers Forum, which was addressed by the Chairman of the South African Press Council, Mr. Raymond Low and the South African Media Ombudsman, Mr. Joe Thloloe, among other speakers, could come to no other conclusion.
Media in Botswana are members of a functioning self-regulated Press Council that has been in existence since 2003, that has handled media complaints from all sectors of the society adequately and that has a Code of Ethics that is based on international norms that the government itself has acknowledged is flawless.
Media are not lawless entities; they are subject to the laws of Botswana – there are many legal provisions in Botswana’s laws that regulate the way the media conduct themselves, and persons who prefer to have the courts arbitrate in their cases, rather than taking them to the Press Council, do so on a daily basis.
Most media have faced and continue to face large lawsuits that demand heavy compensation for libel, and frequently judgments are made against them and in several cases they have been required to pay heavy compensation to the complainants.
Notwithstanding their challenges, media in Botswana are growing in leaps and bounds, because they are an integral part of the economy and play an important role in development – in empowering people by disseminating information, and by providing them with a platform to debate issues of national concern.
Media promote good governance by encouraging transparency and accountability in public and private institutions, thereby discouraging corruption and ensuring that a level playing field exists in all human endeavours.
Media in their diversity promote human enterprise and business; they promote democracy and human rights.
Only a government that is threatened by democracy and human rights; that is threatened by free speech and expressing one thoughts in writing, broadcasting or television, would deny media independence and want to exercise control over it.
In reality the target of the Media Practitioners’ Bill is not the media as such, but the consumers of the media – ordinary people who buy newspapers, listen to radio and watch TV. The less the media write, or broadcast, or televise, the less the people will know what is really going on in Botswana.
Knowledge is power; if you can control information, you can control power and even amass it for yourself; you may even try to keep it forever, doling it out to your relatives and those who support you.
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The Bill as it stands will do Botswana a great deal of harm - by reversing the gains that we have made so far made as a nation, as we become powerless to decide our own future; it will spawn autocrats who alone “know” what it good for us.
This Bill should be trashed.
What Botswana needs are constitutional guarantees of Freedom of Expression, Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information.
As for a Press Council, we already have one, registered as a Trust under the laws of Botswana.
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