allAfrica.com: Botswana: MISA's New Chief (Page 1 of 2)

April 1 was not just a day of change of guard at the presidency. It was also the day the youthful and soft-spoken Thapelo Ndlovu took over the reigns of MISA-Botswana from the outspoken father of the media, Modise Maphanyane. MOSES MARUPING spent time with him.

Q. Allow me to congratulate you on your new job as the national director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Botswana). You must be excited?

I'm over the moon. Obviously to me this is where I've always wanted to be. I assumed leadership of this office on the same day our new president, Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama took to the high office and I'm proud to be part of such a history.

Q. A job of this magnitude obviously brings with it some huge challenges. How prepared would you say you are and what are some of these challenges?

First let me explain what MISA stands for by saying that it is a non-governmental organization with members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. Officially launched in September 1992, MISA focuses primarily on the need to promote free, independent and pluralistic media, as envisaged in the 1991 Windhoek Declaration. We seek ways in which to promote the free flow of information and co-operation between media workers, as a principal means of nurturing democracy and human rights in Africa. Our role is primarily one of a coordinator, facilitator and communicator, and for this reason MISA aims to work together with all like-minded organizations and individuals to achieve a genuinely free and pluralistic media in southern Africa. Our major challenge is that which many people always want to look at us as an anti-government institution. What we stand for is advocating for the freedom of expression and making sure the media operates within a conducive environment. Right now we're fighting to have the Access to Information Law. Our fear is that without this law journalists will always not be free to deliver on their mandate of being the public's watchdog.

Q. How far, in terms of advocacy, have you gone with this particular law?

We're still struggling to engage in with government as it seems they don't have any interest to dialogue on this matter. It appears to them this is not a priority and this concerns us. We're currently gearing up ourselves on how best we could influence government on this type of change. We're also strongly advocating for the licensing of community radio stations that our legislators seem are not eager to offer us. Despite the many huddles, we strongly feel will get there someday. All we are saying is let's take the media right to the people.

Q. Prophets of doom have in the past argued that community radio stations might marginalize people or tribes thus fueling tribal wars or acrimony. Your comment...

In a way that could be a legitimate concern but I think we have seen this happen in other countries and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Currently what we see is satellite radio stations belonging to government media and this is not what we want. We want communities to have their own broadcast mediums.

Q. Before ascending to the high chair of being a media advocate and activist, what were you doing back then?

Just recently I was working as Information and Research Officer for MISA. But in the past I've been an editor of the now defunct Mokgosi newspaper. I have also worked as a Principal Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Education. I'm also a Board member of the Press Council of Botswana and I've also been the President of Writers Association of Botswana. Largely let me just say I've always been a media activist. I'm also a trained teacher.

Q. Is this what you've always dreamed of?

As a matter of fact, yes. I was born a media person. From a very tender age I've always been an avid newspaper addict. I remember at boarding school that whenever people jumped the fence to go and indulge in alcohol and other societal ills I would also scale the fence just to go buy newspapers. I used to read The New Nation and Weekly Mail. I also participated in a lot of drama. During my teaching days, I used to freelance a lot, especially for Mmegi. I freelanced for the paper for 10 years until a job break came at Mokgosi. With Mokgosi, we knew from the start it was a risk but we persevered up until we shut down. I'm quite happy for the experience I gained at this vernacular newspaper though.

Q. Do you think there's room for a vernacular newspaper?

Yes indeed. My feeling is that a lot of our people are kept out of the media because of the language barrier. Setswana is spoken throughout the country and it doesn't make sense that we don't have a single medium that communicates to the people in this language except for Radio Botswana. We can also afford to have mediums in many various languages spoken by many people.

Q. Do you think as journalists we need to be afraid, especially with the new arm of government, which has gone on record saying the local media is undisciplined?

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