SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 1.2 2.10 Private media outlets operate as efficient and professional businesses. ANALYSIS: In a small market any inefficiency will be punished with closure or failure of the business. The media industry has small profit margins, partly due to cost-recovery measures being implemented by government. The state media charge sub-standard rates and have national coverage, both of which give them an advantage over the smaller media houses. This results in distortion in the market and unfair competition from state outlets under the guise of ‘cost recovery’. The state uses the public purse to run its media whereas the private media have to rely on their own meagre resources. This raises questions about the democratic nature of Batswana society and the development of diversity of public opinion. There are strategies in place to cultivate professionalism and to ensure the sustainability of private media. This is done through MISA and SAMDEF. The latter was established to help in sustaining the private media. All media houses are trying hard to diversify sources of revenue instead of depending on advertising only. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3 3.2 2.11. State print media are not subsidized with taxpayers’ money. ANALYSIS: The government-owned Daily News is subsidized directly by government. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 1.0 2.12. Government does not use its power over the placement of advertisements as a means to interfere with media content. ANALYSIS: In May 2001 the Botswana government issued a circular to all ministries, departments, parastatal organisations and private companies in which government is a shareholder, ordering them to stop advertising in The Botswana Guardian and the Midweek Sun. The reason given was the “persistent negative and often hostile reportage on government and its institutions”. This decision was declared unconstitutional by the Botswana High Court later in the same year. So This Is Democracy? 2005 -197- Media Institute of Southern Africa