PRESIDENT Festus Mogae said the launch of the Editors' Forum last Friday should be a milestone in the professional development of the local media.

Speaking at the launch of the Forum at the Gaborone Sun, Mogae expressed appreciation for the ideals and objectives upon which the Forum intends to conduct its affairs.

"I observe in this Forum's founding document, and indeed also in the draft constitution of the regional body to which it is to be affiliated, recognition that journalists and media owners have a common duty to work to the highest professional standards and ethics," he said.

He added that the nurturing and deepening of press freedom as a democratic value is linked with a commitment to both quality and fairness.

"This is appropriate for freedom of any sort never comes for free," he said.

Mogae urged the editors to ensure that freedom of expression is never abused. He said the credibility of any free media will suffer if it casts aside professional values such as accuracy, balance and fairness "in pursuit of quick and ill-gotten profits from sensationalism and malicious insult".

The President expressed concern and disappointment at the way some media houses twist facts, instead of just stating the facts, adding that inappropriate pictures often accompany such stories.

"While the victims of such articles may be labelled in less than human terms, with names such as fat cats, dead woods, or worse, I believe it is worth remembering they are all none the less, real people with real families just like you and I," he said.

The President quoted the recently released afro-barometer survey, which stated that in 1999, 71 percent of Batswana had either a lot or a great deal of trust in public broadcasters. He said that the trust has since dropped to 57% in the survey, which was released this year.