Lekopanye Mooketsi
19 June 2009
Botswana Television (Btv) has once again come under fire from opposition parties for running the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) campaign.
On Sunday, the Btv crew was nearly barred from the Botswana Congress Party (BCP)/Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) manifesto launch at White City in Gaborone.
BCP members were livid that the Btv crew came at the end of the launch.
The crew did an interview with the BCP vice president, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang, because by the time they arrived, the proceedings were over and all the speakers had left the podium.
Speakers at the launch had a field day as they attacked the state media. They labelled the government television channel "BDP TV". They pointed out that Btv had boycotted the event. Speaking at the launch, Gobotswang said Btv has always been sabotaging their party.
He said even if their rally is well attended, the Btv cameras do not reflect the large crowd. Gobotswang said opposition parties do not have equal access to the state media.
He said the only party which is given wide coverage by Btv is the BDP. He found this to be unfair because the taxpayer funds the state media.
In an interview, the publicity chief of the Botswana National Front (BNF), Moeti Mohwasa, said Btv has turned into a public relations unit of the BDP. He said Btv regards the BDP as the only party which has the right to coverage.
Mohwasa said Btv is used as a campaign tool for the BDP. To him this is not surprising because the ruling party always manipulates state broadcasters like what is happening in Zimbabwe.
He said at times Btv would snub their events in favour of the BDP activities. He added that lately, Btv is always screening BDP launches and snubbing opposition events.
The BNF spin-doctor said a news item about a BDP candidate launch in Gumare appeared on three different days on Btv news.
Mohwasa called for Btv to be turned into a para-statal that will be controlled by a non-political board. But he said the BDP does not want to lose its grip on the broadcaster.
The director of the state broadcasting services, Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo, denied that they are affiliated to any political party. He said it is unfortunate that some people hold the perception that they are biased towards the BDP.
"It is not true that we are pro-BDP. We are not biased towards anybody," he said. He said in the past, BDP members also accused them of being pro-opposition.
The director said they are doing their level best to give all parties equal access to the state media.
But he said political activity has heightened and it is not possible to cover every event. He added that there are some BDP events that they failed to cover.
Kaboeamodimo said his department has challenges like shortage of manpower.
Due to shortage of staff, he said, in the past they have even failed to cover events that were addressed by the minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi and senior government officials, he said.
The director defended their policy of giving full coverage to the president and his deputy even in political activities. He said the president has state resources reserved for him.
But he said they have never abandoned the coverage of any party so that they could go and cover the president. One of the cries of the opposition parties is that the state president and vice president are given full coverage for political activities but the same does not apply to other parties.
Kaboeamodimo said he was also concerned that the Btv crew turned up late at the BCP event. But he was satisfied with their explanation that they came late because they had been covering other events. To him, this was understandable since there were many events over the weekend.
He added that in the past they arrived late at activities but this was not deliberate.
Kaboeamodimo said he had assured BCP publicity chief, Dumelang Saleshando, that they would cover their launch. "We arranged to cover the rally with the other events for the weekend," he said.
"The BCP people wanted to blame our crew because they were late but I reasoned with Saleshando to allow them to cover the remaining events," said Kaboeamodimo.
As for the elections campaign coverage, the state media boss said they are guided by the elections code of conduct. He said the booklet sets out the parameters.
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