The Botswana public support critical media- survey shows

The preliminary results of an Afro Barometer Survey released on 20 February 2009, indicate the majority of the people of Botswana support Press Freedom and critical speech.

The survey, conducted by the Department of Political and Administration Studies, Sociology and Statistics at the University of Botswana reveals that "Batswana overwhelmingly showed their support for media and individual freedoms. This suggest that freedom of Expression is regarded by Batswana as an essential attribute of a functioning democracy"

The release from the surveyors continues to read, "Despite recent government attempts to suppress the media and individual freedoms, Batswana have remained firm in their commitment to these freedoms."

Asked whether the press should be free to publish any story that they see fit without fear of being shut down, the respondents from Rural and Urban responded in the positive scoring 78 and 86% respectively.

The other question was whether the news media should constantly investigate and report on corruption and the mistakes made by the Government, in which they also responded overwhelmingly in the affirmative.

Commenting on the results one of the researchers, David Sebudubudu, concurred by citing certain examples in which both Government and the main opposition party have been seen to be stifling divergent views.

"I do not think it is good for democracy if holders of divergent views are suppressed."

MISA-Botswana hopes the results will make Government realize that the recently enacted Media Practitioners Act is not in line with popular opinion in the country. The law sets up a statutory media council as well demands that journalists be accredited and punished any breach of this law.

The results are also in agreement with the views expressed by Botswana public as documented in the country’s national vision document, Vision 2016, in which the country aspires to have a self regulatory Press Council and a Freedom of Information Act. The Afro Barometer is supported by several organizations including The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), Ghana Centre for Democratic Development and Michigan State University and is conducted in several countries.

Rashweat Mukundu
Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring
MISA Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: + 264 61 232 975
Fax:+264 61 248016
Mobile: 00 264 813 675 362
E mail rashweat@misa.org, misaalerts@gmail.com

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