09 Jul 2014

Employees of Information and Broadcasting Services including Government Printing and Publishing have been urged to protect their professional  image, by upholding high levels of ethical and professional conduct for the good of the country.

Acting Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Shaw Kgathi said when addressing a general staff meeting - accompanied by Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri and senior officials in the Ministry of State President on July 8.

As public media personalities, Mr Kgathi said, the employees have influence on many  many people, particularly the young, as role models and people who have custody of the culture capital of Botswana.

“As government journalists, photographers, programme producers, announcers, editors, engineers, machine operators and managers, you need to re-orientate your thinking and adjust to the fact that you are the information machinery of the government of the day,” he added.

This, Mr Kgathi said, was why the whole government and the rest of the economy of Botswana relied on Information and Broadcasting to facilitate national dialogue “by connecting government with every citizen every day.” Like all government employees, he said government journalists ought to remain apolitical and should not engage in any possible bias that could compromise the quality of work.

Mr Kgathi expressed appreciation for the efforts that many employees within Information and Broadcasting put into work every day, adding that like all public servants, he was aware that the employees also had to contend with several challenges in assignments for programming, news coverage and support services for these functions.

These resource limitations, he said were largely due to constraints on the national government budget.

Therefore, as professionals in the business of communication and information, he said state media should be the first to understand the economic factors that limit the extent to which government could provide all the resources needed to do the best possible work, “hence the universal call on the Botswana public service by government to do more with less, so that more of us can benefit.”

Furthermore, with only two months left before the upcoming general elections, the Acting Minister also encouraged the employees to continue being as professional as they had been “to give accurate, truthful and informative material, not just about politics, but about other issues that Batswana care about as well.” He added that the country relies on state media for credible information.

Mr Kgathi said that even during elections, “Batswana need to be entertained through programming, because somehow that would help to ease the inevitable anxiety that permeated the electioneering atmosphere.”

He emphasised the public service mandate of state media which is to propagate information on behalf of the government of the day, for the benefit of all Batswana. 
ENDS