SECTOR 4 Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 2.3 (2005 = 4.0; 2007 = 3.8; 2009 = 3.2) 4.10 Journalists and other media practitioners are organised in trade unions and/or professional associations. “It’s vital for journalists to have a forum, such as a union...” There is a serious lack of operational, professional bodies for media practitioners in Botswana. “It’s vital for journalists to have a forum, such as a union, where salaries and conditions of work can be discussed.” Attempts over the last five years to form a new union for journalists, based on a merger between the Botswana Journalists Association (BOJA) and the Botswana Media Workers’ Union (BOMEWU), have not come to fruition. The difficulty in moving the process forward, and having the first AGM, appears to be related to leadership and finding a neutral journalist, and not an editor or similarly senior media practitioner, to chair the union. Funding is another obstacle. BOJA has not been operational for years.Similar challenges face the Botswana Media Women Association (BOMWA), which has not held an AGM in years. The Botswana Editors’ Forum (BEF) has been recently reconvened, but “what they are doing is a great mystery”. There is general consensus that it needs to become a strong body, and that managers must use it. MISA Botswana has been trying to encourage sales and marketing media workers to form an association, “but this is a mammoth task due to fragmentation, as they see each other as competition and don’t want to work together”. 62 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BOTSWANA 2011