Botswana
4.2

The standard of reporting follows the basic principles of
accuracy and fairness.

ANALYSIS:
The media generally are not doing enough to get the other side of
the story. There is too little analysis and in-depth coverage of issues
of national importance such as the recent devaluation of the pula,
for example.
Furthermore, there is no diversity of experts writing in the papers
and it seems that always the same political analysts get a chance.
One of the reasons cited was that a lot of people do not dare to
come forward and express their opinion in writing. Another underlying cause is the decline of quality teaching and research at the
university which does not produce top experts any more - the “UB
is a bakery producing a lot of loaves”.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

3, 2, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Average score:

2.9

4.3

The media cover the full spectrum of events, issues and
cultures, including business/economics, cultural, local and
investigative stories.

ANALYSIS:
In view of increasing commercialisation, the media do not want
to antagonize their advertisers and thus practice self-censorship.
There is tension between the editorial and advertising teams, as
the former always seek to cover only newsworthy events and not
those directly linked to commercial interests and designed to make
African Media Barometer - Botswana 2005

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