SECTOR 1 1.11 Media legislation evolves from meaningful consultations among state institutions, citizens and interest groups. The government does not believe in engaging relevant stakeholders. “They would rather go to kgotla3 meetings in the village, to consult, where no one has a clue about the subject matter, so they can choreograph the process.” When the Broadcasting Act was amended, there were processes of consultation with stakeholders and issues were raised on community broadcasting and regulation of state media. “To my dismay, none of these things that were discussed were included in the Act. I wouldn’t say the consultations weren’t meaningful; it’s a matter of implementation.” During discussions on the Media Practitioners Act (MPA), “MISA was very active and there were frantic efforts to mobilise the sector to lobby around contentious clauses in the MPA. But we realised it was going to pass anyway.” “I don’t know how much we are to blame. You have to be careful with government; they will involve you so that they can say that they engaged you. There is a high level of distrust now, between media and government, especially private media.” Just before the recent elections (2014), a radio station agreed to hold national debates around the country with all the parties involved. The various parties agreed and a schedule was approved by all the parties. Two weeks prior to the scheduled national debates, the ruling party pulled out and admitted that they had no intention of being part of the programme. 3 24 A kgotla is a public meeting, community council or traditional law court, especially in villages of Botswana, usually referred to as a customary court. It is usually headed by the village chief or headman, and community decisions are always arrived at by consensus. Anyone at all is allowed to speak, and no one may interrupt while someone is “having their say”. In fact there is a Setswana saying that the highest form of war is dialogue (ntwa kgolo ke ya molomo). Because of this tradition, Botswana claims to be one of the world’s oldest democracies. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Botswana 2014