state funds to renovate his private estate. During their brief detention, the journalists’ phones were confiscated. And the security agents also searched and seized the journalists’ equipment, including cameras. The journalists reported that the intelligence operatives threatened them, stating that if the journalists returned to the president’s residence, “we will not negotiate; we will shoot you on sight”. One of the most prominent cases in 2017 was that of the popularly known ‘Sedition Case’ against the editor of the Sunday Standard newspaper, Outsa Mokone. BROADCASTING Positive In the year under review, the most significantly positive development for broadcasting was an Ombudsman’s report of August 2017 that recognised long- held complaints by a broad section of society that both state-owned Radio Botswana and Botswana Television were extremely skewed and exceptionally partial to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party 34 So This is Democracy? 2017 in their coverage of political parties and issues. The report is notable in that the content reflects the first official acknowledgement of this discrepancy that is par for the course for this far reaching medium. The report was followed by the lodging of complaints with the Ombudsman by the opposition Botswana Congress Party. Negative However, the practice continues unabated and it is by design that this is so primarily because in Botswana, state media are departments under the Ministry of State President and are run directly from the Office of the President. Another negative state of affairs that still obtained in the year past was BOCRA, the regressive Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority that repealed the Broadcasting Act of 1998. The law is regressive in that it omits provision for a public broadcasting service to which Radio Botswana and Btv would belong, as well as community radio stations that would allow for diversity. With regard to community radio stations, the government has pushed the notion that these would encourage tribalism and presents the Rwanda genocide of the 1990s as an example. The reality is that present-day Rwanda is pushing through with advances in every aspect of life and enjoys a plurality of community radio stations. Under BOCRA, the minister appoints the CEO and the board of the regulatory body but also has the authority to overturn decisions of the board. For the government, BOCRA’s most far-reaching achievement must be how the law removes both Radio Botswana and Btv