SECTOR 2 2.5 Adequate competition legislation/regulation seeks to prevent media concentration and monopolies. The Competition Act is not specific to media as it applies to all companies. While the previous Act prevented multiple ownership of radio stations, the new BOCRA Act is silent on this issue. Several years ago Mmegi was reported to the Competition Authority for being a monopoly in the media sector. Mmegi was able to argue the aspect of the competition law that states ‘a monopoly can be maintained if it is for the public good.’ There is one aspect of the competition law that says you ‘could’ maintain a monopoly or dominant group as long as it’s for the public good. They maintained that if they were split into smaller organisations, they would not be able to sustain themselves and in turn counterbalance the state monopoly. The application against the group was, therefore, scrapped. 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: 3.0 (2005 = 1.2; 2007 = 1.1; 2009 = 1.0; 2011 = 1.9) 2.6 Government promotes a diverse media landscape with economically sustainable and independent media outlets. The Broadcasting Act of 1998 provided for the three tier system – public, commercial and community broadcasting services. However, it was replaced by the Communications Regulatory Act of 2012, which eliminated community broadcasting and has replaced public broadcasting with state broadcasting. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Botswana 2014 33