BRAVO, MISA BRAVO!

Finally, some semblance of sanity prevailed at Saturday’s volatile MISA annual general meeting after the organisation’s regional director Tabani Moyo explained the election guidelines.

In fact, I hear that even the MISA founding executive secretary Metlhaetsile Leepile also advised against the path that a section of the Botswana chapter was insisting on championing! Although there was no consensus, the comforting assurance that we take from this embarrassing incident is that finally the Media Industry will henceforth awake from its sleep and slumber and get its house in order. If you are sleeping, people will come from outside and take over the affairs of your house. Some people, naturally, have hearts of stone, they affect no feelings whatsoever. You could say they have no scruples. Brothers and sisters, it’s time for media workers to take over their craft, their profession. But as we go about it please don’t let us invite outsiders - this has been the bane of the media industry for the longest time. Many have come under the pretext that they are ‘media activists’ when in fact they are wolves in sheep’s skin hell-bent only on infiltrating and destabilising the media fraternity after which they dump it! Their modus operandi is simple – they endear themselves to the publishers and very soon they run the media organisations! Meanwhile, these are moles doing the bidding of the ruling elite, sent on a special mission to neutralise the Press by any means necessary. If they succeed in their project they are rewarded with plum jobs in strategic ministries or they win unsolicited contracts as ‘consultants.’ This has been the norm for the longest time. I am grateful that Saturday’s AGM, however rowdy, put a spanner in the works of this highway to hell and thereby stopped it dead on its tracks. What now ought o happen is that the Media workers organise themselves around their organisations, regularise their membership in accordance with the rules and regulations as provided for by their respective organisations.

For example, Botswana Media and Allied Workers Union (BOMAWU) must get its act together, lobby its members and rally behind candidates wishing to run for elections at the media advocacy organisation – MISA.

The same should happen for the Editors’ Forum – it must define its operational parameters, review its constitution and align its mandate with that of the welfare and advocacy organisations respectively! It’s a trite truism that no man is an island – we all need each other and we can certainly make a whole difference if we come together. I am hoping that freelance journalists can also form a body or better still, affiliate to BOWAMU to bargain for better working conditions! Publishers must also have their own body while MISA acts as the overarching organisation with a mandate to ensure that the media environment is free and conducive for practitioners – at home and outside – to operate It is with this prism that I view Saturday’s postponement of the election as fit and proper! So, let’s get back to the drawing boards and this time do a proper election! As MISA embarks on this journey, it must tap on the wisdom and experience of people like Tony Leepile, who built the regional office from scratch and even founded the Southern African Media Development Fund (SAMDEF) whose offices were housed at the Gazette newspaper’s premises! These are pressing issues that we need to contend with, for example, recently a delegation from the International Press Institute (IPI) visited Botswana to assess the media environment here and their statement be accessed at https://ipi. media/botswana-media-environmentfaces-key-risks-and-challenges. For the benefit of my fellow compatriots here are some of the key issues that they assessed: “Government control over public media: Botswana lacks a true public service media. Instead, the country’s publicly owned media serve as a mouthpiece for the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). Strong reforms are necessary in order to ensure the country’s public media can operate free of government and political inference, in accordance with international freedom of expression standards guaranteeing the public’s right to receive diverse and independent news and information. Misuse of government advertising: As in many media markets, private media in Botswana rely on advertising revenue for survival, including statefunded advertising, given the country’s small market. However, numerous stakeholders highlighted that publicly funded advertising in Botswana is misused as a tool of influence and control. The government should take concrete steps to enable fair market conditions for private media, including ensuring that public advertising is allocated transparently and according to clear and objective criteria. Use of strategic lawsuits (SLAPPs) to punish critical press: Editors and journalists report an increase in strategic lawsuits against the media – or “SLAPPs” – aimed at draining independent outlets of vital resources.