07 Aug 2023

Government news management system has been hailed as impressive, especially the way it is coordinated and centralised.

“I am quite impressed with the way you are coordinating your activities here. It is something we could learn from even though our set up is a bit different, with our government media being regulated by a regulatory authority,” Namibia Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Peya Mushelenga said after a tour of the Mass Media complex on August 7.

“However, looking at the news content we can compare notes and Botswana can even learn something from us, especially that Namibia is rated number one in Africa in terms of freedom of the media,” he said.

Dr Mushelenga also encouraged local journalists to continue working for the common good of public information dissemination and to uphold the principle of press freedom.

Meanwhile the directors of the three departments of Information Services, Broadcasting Services as well as Government Printing and Publishing briefed the Namibian delegation on the functions and challenges of their departments.

Director of Information Services, Ms Maria Leshongwane said her department was determined to improve on its online services, which she said would enable it to reach a wider population. She said the online services were also vital in that advertisers nowadays preferred the platform.

Ms Leshongwane said the department was currently struggling to distribute its flagship publication, the DailyNews due to high distribution costs.

“We are supposed to distribute the paper to about 544 villages across the country, but we can only manage about 155 due to high costs.”

Ms Leshongwane therefore said it would be a welcome development for Batswana to embrace the department’s online services, especially that they are in line with President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s recently launched mindset change campaign.

She said with government having installed free wifi in government institutions such as dikgotla and schools, accessing the department’s online services would be easier. 

For his part, the director of Broadcasting Services, Mr Raymond Tsheko said his team was working hard to bring the standard of their content to that of South Africa as they have noted that viewers still preferred the neighbouring country’s content.

“We will do all to improve our content to compete and tell a better African story. We currently have two channels on the multichoice bouquet and we are still in negotiations with them for an additional third channel,” he said.

Mr Tsheko said even though government electronic media was nolonger regulated by Botswana Communications and Regulatory Authority, the department had so far surpassed the 60:40 airplay target set by the organisation in favour of local content. They currently play 80 per cent local content.

For his part, the Director of Government Printing and Publishing Services, Mr Kabo Dikolobe said his department was forced to drastically reduce the DailyNews print run due to exorbitant prices of printing reels, which he said had more than tripled.

The Namibian delegation is on a benchmarking mission to Botswana. ends