Media Practitioner’s Act repeal soon
Correspondent | Monday June 27, 2022 06:00
The Assistant Minister for State President, Dumezweni Mthimkhulu said this at the Advancing Rights in Southern Africa (ARISA/Internews) reporting on digital security, safety and surveillance training for journalists on Tuesday.
Mthimkhulu also assured journalists of government’s commitment to promoting media freedom. It was against that background that the assistant minister told journalists that a Bill seeking to repeal the Media Practitioner’s Act of 2008 will be tabled during Parliament’s sitting next month.
“The process is at an advanced stage with various media bodies and academia having submitted their proposals. In place of the Media Practitioners Act of 2008, we are considering options including self-regulation of the media,” he said.
He added that the Freedom of Information Bill was also being worked on. Government deemed the media a critical partner in its quest to perpetuate democracy, he said.
“Government is committed to ensuring media freedom and creating an environment that allows it to thrive. The cause for media freedom and excellence is an important one for every society in the world, and therefore the media should be allowed to operate in an environment conducive for their work,” he said.
He added that it was important that as promoters of democracy, journalists were fully equipped and adequately knowledgeable to investigate and report about various issues. “It is my belief that when you are equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge, you will produce world class media reports that help to build our communities,” Mthimkhulu said.
He thus expressed hope that the training would go a long way in preparing journalists to report on matters of digital security, safety and surveillance.
“It is my expectation that you will all emerge better equipped to report on these complex subjects that are a major feature of the lives that we lead in today’s tech-driven world,” he said, and so implored journalists to milk the training for all it was worth.
ARISA facilitator, Millie Phiri said the workshop came at a time the world was slowly realising the importance of digitally driven media.
“We have for long celebrated the affordability of digital technologies and their offer of unprecedented access to information and linking the media to a huge number of citizens,” said Phiri.
However, she regretted there was growing evidence of both state and corporate-driven surveillance of journalists.
Of even greater concern, she said, was that in the trainings they conducted, they realised that journalists were usually not aware or certain about whether they were subjected to surveillance or not.
Frighteningly, only a few of them belonged to structures or networks that could offer support in the event of surveillance. “Journalists do not prepare for risky news reporting assignments or have a digital security strategy,” she said.
Phiri also said there was need for collaboration amongst journalists in the region as that would allow them to work together in producing surveillance news.
She encouraged journalists to start working on exposing surveillance in the region, collaborate as a community to expose surveillance practices, set public agenda on surveillance as well as work with others across the world to expose the illicit global trade in surveillance.
BOMAWU president, Philemon Mmeso expressed concern about the poor welfare and living conditions of journalists in Botswana. Mmeso said the situation had led to talented journalists going into freelance and social media jobs to the detriment of the mainstream industry.
He also said in the past, the media in Botswana did not have good working relations with the government, adding however, that the situation has now improved. “We appreciate the efforts by the government and we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
The four-day workshop seeks to equip journalists with the skills for exposing human rights violations by technologies used in the region. It also seeks to make the necessary groundwork for journalists to understand the practices in Botswana through a scoping exercise of national trends.
The workshop, which ends today will also unpack legal frameworks that journalists should be privy to relating to digital security and surveillance. BOPA