I n 2014, Botswana’s media industry experienced the oppressing hand of government more than in any other year, mostly likely because it was an election year and the ruling party faced more pressure than ever before from the newly formed political party, Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). ELECTIONS AND THE MEDIA Media freedom during the 2014 Botswana election The labor movement increased pressure by publicly declaring their support for UDC and sensing possible loss or humiliation the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) applied draconian tactics to stifle the media including boycotting parliamentary and presidential debates organised by Gabz FM, a local private radio station. The aim of the BDP was to sabotage the debates to an extent that the station would rescind from continuing. The now vice President Mr Mokgweetsi was even recorded, and the tape leaked to the media, boasting about how they tricked Gabz FM into believing BDP would participate, while the ruling party was actually busy planning similar debates with other, more sympathetic, broadcasters. The election came and went with the ruling party retaining power with the lowest popular vote ever since independence. The leadership of the party passed the blame on to the private media for their poor performance and by the close of the year media houses were experiencing dwindling advertising from government departments. Then, there was a grape vine circulating that government had decided to with- hold advertising on certain newspapers said to be critical of it. This divide and rule stance is aimed at creating animosity among the media houses and practitioners and hence, we ask, “So this is democracy?” Public media relocated to the office of the president The government’s decision to relocate the public media to the office of the president was a deliberate move to thwart transformation efforts from state media to public media as expounded on the Broadcast Act of 1998. This was later followed by the repeal of the act. Opposition politicians felt the results of the above move more than anyone else during the 2014 election period. Radio Botswana and Botswana Television’s coverage was biased towards the ruling BDP. The anomaly was noted by most observer missions and recommended that the situation be revised in future. CENSORSHIP AND BANNING Government heads to courts to impede the media By mid-2014, hostility against the private media had risen and the government resorted to the courts to silence the media. A weekly broadsheet, the Sunday Standard, published a series of stories regarding an investigation by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) into corruption allegations against the Director of Intelligence Services (DIS) Chief, Isaac Kgosi. However, the DCEC successfully sought an interdict against the Sunday Standard and the Lobatse High Court ordered the newspaper not to publish in verbatim extracts from interviews conducted by So This is Democracy? 2014 25