closure has been attributed to the fact that the newspaper did not get enough advertisements and support from the market. It started out as a fortnightly broadsheet and then changed into a weekly, with an original print-run of 10,000 - a number which it did not manage to grow and which had fallen to 4, 000 by the time it folded. Newspapers survive on a growing or steady readership The Mokgosi management tried to position the newspaper as a mass circulation paper, given that the majority of the population are Setswana-speaking. But there has now been a clear realisation that Setswana is on the wane as the main language of choice. Many Setswana speakers have difficulties reading their own language because they have been brought up in English. There is no political commitment to preserve Setswana – nor is there a national language policy that might help protect it from extinction. The newspaper could have been a mobilizing tool for language rights. But there is no longer any prospect that the initiators will revive the paper. As for English language papers the market still appears to be saturated with a large number of offerings. The country has a high literacy rate (84%) and papers are generally affordable at prices below that of a loaf of bread, an internationally accepted form of measuring the affordability of newspapers. Given the sparsely distributed population, distribution remains the greatest challenge. Most publications are centered in urban areas or places with high population concentrations. Most newspaper houses either distribute their newspapers themselves or use other means such as subscriptions, use of courier services and various forms of public transport. BONESA, a company from the Mmegi stable which had been established in 2005 as a distribution agency, is still operating and has shown great potential to grow. But there is a need for more capital investment as the company is presently too dependent on the goodwill of its previous owner. It also needs new vehicles as the present fleet is old. There is also a clear need for the company to change its concept and become more inclusive. Its distribution vehicles and personnel still carry the original company name and colours. Quite understandably, papers like The Voice have a problem with being distributed by the same vehicle that is advertising their competition. Talks are presently under way to make more general use of the new name and trademark BONESA which might bring more of the other publications on board. Presently, the government-owned and controlled Daily News is the paper reaching the widest section of the reading public. For a time, South African newspapers appeared to enjoy better distribution than the local papers, e.g. through South African owned trading outlets. This has changed because customers have been demanding their local newspapers. Regarding internet, urban areas have better access than rural areas – especially remote areas with no electricity or those not being reached by the national grid. But the number of villages with access to electricity has been growing in recent years. Nteletsa II, an accelerated village electrification project, has just been announced and will extend electricity supply to more villages and ensure wider access to electricity needed for communication technologies. Charges of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country have gone down dramatically and this has further increased access to the Internet. The opening-up of the market also helped as the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) no longer has the monopoly of access to the international gateways. ISPs can now offer their own services directly without going through BTC. Broadcasting has also been extended to more – and more remote - rural areas, So This Is Democracy? 2007 -154- Media Institute of Southern Africa