2007 CBA Regional Conference - Kenya
Election Coverage: Hazards and Opportunities
Bapasi M. Mphusu, Director, Botswana Broadcasting Services
In Botswana and indeed in other countries, journalists play a key
role during election campaigns. We inform potential voters of party
platforms so that they can make informed decisions on polling day.
Ours is not to campaign for any political party but to ensure that
the general public is aware of the different political players and
their promises or pledges. We do that by covering political rallies
and also giving political parties the opportunity to get to the voters
through newspapers, radio and television. We facilitate the flow of
information from party leaders to the voters.
How do we do it in Botswana
Botswana has gone through nine general elections from the first election in March 1965 when the population was a little over half a million to October 2004 when the population has grown to 1.7 million.
In the first four general elections – 1965, 1969, 1974 and 1979 – there was no private or commercial media. The only domestic media was the state-owned Radio Botswana with a limited coverage and a small A4 newspaper, the Daily News. The two favoured the government of the ruling party- Botswana Democratic Party - because the opposition was weak and there was no sign of an election upset.
However, we saw dramatic changes in the run to the 1984 general election – the opposition had become more vocal outside Parliament and spread throughout the country. Two commercial newspapers were launched namely, Botswana Guardian and Mmegi (The Reporter) and they gave exposure to opposition activities. That challenged the official media to change the way we have been covering opposition politics. There was nothing revolutionary about the changes but gradual reforms which saw us giving more air time and newspaper space to the opposition.
During the 1989 election we profiled all Parliamentary candidates in the Daily News, which has by now developed into a tabloid newspaper. Radio Botswana gave party leaders including the opposition 15 minutes to address the nation on the eve of the election. That was a great improvement compared to the coverage of the first four general elections. Because of these reforms the state media coverage of the opposition has changed and by 1994 an independent study found out that the state media provided 54% coverage of the opposition against 46% for the ruling party. We were above the coverage by the commercial newspapers.
Growth of the commercial media
Since 1984 Botswana has witnessed an extraordinary growth of the private commercial media. By the October 2004 general election there were 12 newspapers including the government–owned Daily News. The Daily News remains the biggest newspaper and is distributed free of charge across the country. Private newspapers are only found in urban centres and big villages and have limited circulation. In addition to newspapers, there are two FM commercial radio stations which only broadcast around the capital city Gaborone. Therefore, the state media, in the form of the Daily News, Radio Botswana which has two channels and Botswana Television which was launched in July 2000, remain the largest media players with immense influence.
The public media have been introducing reforms at every election. For example, during the last general election in 2004 we convened a meeting with all political parties to explain our election coverage strategy. We agreed on all points except on the coverage of the sitting president. The opposition complaint was that we were biased because he was getting more coverage especially over Botswana Television.
Reforms that we introduced included live public debates between candidates in all the 57 constituencies over Radio Botswana. These two-hour debates were held at each constituency and had a public audience. We also had two live two-hour television debates. Party platforms were published in the Daily News and Radio Botswana gave party leaders airtime to explain their platforms. We also introduced party jingles over the radio.
However, despite all these efforts we still get heavily criticized by both the ruling party and the opposition. We take this as normal because it does not matter what journalists do, they will always get criticized.