17 Jun 2018

Both Botswana DailyNews  and Botswana Television (BTV) have a mandate to promote, broadcast and  publicise government programmes, projects and national events for the benefit of the citizenry.

Answering a question in Parliament on June 15, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Nonofo Molefhi said the DailyNews had no policy that barred opposition figure from appearing on its front page.

Mr Molefhi cited that Gaborone Central Member of Parliament who is also member of Alliance for Progressive appeared on the DailyNews front page on May 3.

In addition, the minister said that the swearing in of the newly elected MP for Mochudi East, Mr Bright Molebatsi of the Umbrella for Democratic Change was published on the newspaper's front page on June 5.

Consequently, Minister Molefhi said, the current administration had no cause to re-look into the DailyNews editorial policy.

“Events  that are political in nature, unless they involve the Head of State or his deputy, rarely ever make the front page,” he said

Furthermore, he said  DailyNews as a government owned newspaper also had an important role of building national cohesion.

Selebi Phikwe West’s Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had wanted the minister to illuminate why the Leader of Opposition and leaders of political parties, other than the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) have not been covered on the front page of the DailyNews since 2014, if it was the editorial policy of the paper that no opposition figure appears on the front page, and if the new administration would re-look into the publication's editorial policy.

Concerning BTV news coverage, Mr Molefhi said the station espouses high journalism ideals, including accurate, balance, fair and equitable reporting.

This, he said include the dissemination of news, which is defined as current events, interesting recent happening and important information.

“In the above context I have asked the management of BTV to review their coverage in light of the findings of the Ombudsman so as to ensure that the station adheres to its mandate for fair, balanced and equitable reporting,” he said.

MP Keorapetse had wanted to know  whether in light of the report by the Ombudsman, that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) enjoys 82 per cent of Botswana Television (BTV) coverage, as compared to 18 per cent shared by the rest of the opposition parties, and that the broadcaster unduly favours BDP at the expense of other political parties. ENDS