the idea of Dikgang Publishing’s dominance in the media industry and as I see it this is just as one way of government’s efforts to marginalise private media,” he quipped. A senior journalist, Douglas Tsiako, highlighted various instances where government had attempted to tamper with free flow of information and freedom of expression. Tsiako added that sometimes in the past when they were covering ruling party rallies, the minister had ordered journalists not to mention figures when reporting their story. By Tsiako’s account, this is an attack on freedom of expression and media freedom. &RPSODLQWVDJDLQVWWKH PHGLD In 2012, the Press Council of Botswana received at least 7 political complaints against the media, and 2 civil complaints. All the 7 political complaints were actually submitted by the opposition Party, Botswana National Front (BNF), 5 against Weekend Post and 2 against The Botswana Gazette. The BNF accused the two media houses of unbalanced and false reports. Of the 2 civil complaints, the Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) filed one against Echo newspaper. The Voice Newspaper also received a complaint from an aggrieved family. *RYHUQPHQWPHGLDDQGVHOI FHQVRUVKLS continued to censor itself, continuing the trend previously highlighted in 2011. Most news items and stories of public interest are muted in the much influential government television, radios and the widely circulated Daily News. When the private media carried such stories it ends up facing all sorts of accusations from government officials. Government journalists are perhaps toothless as a result of the Public Service Act, which prevents any government employee from relaying information without the knowledge of authorities. Unfortunately, this law also applies to government journalists, who by the way the government has gone on record to remind them that they are civil servants not journalists. While private media tend to allow for multiple viewpoints in their editorial policies, the state media on the other hand are clearly biased towards ruling party cadres. For example, the government media rarely covered a case of one John Kalafatis who was killed by suspected security agents. But when the president suddenly offered Kalafatis killers a conditional pardon, it was a buzzword for the state media without even offering background on how Kalafatis was killed or how the pardoned convicts came to receive State President’s attention. +DUDVVPHQWRIMRXUQDOLVWV Still in 2012, government media MISA-Botswana issued an alert following Mmegi photographer’s, Kabo Mpaetona, attack by armed robbery suspects who were appearing before 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\"