Collabos between stakeholders foster media industry growth

The Monitor Editor | Tuesday May 9, 2023 06:00

The activities started with a march from GSS Grounds to the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology followed by speeches from different stakeholders. The day was closed with games involving teams from media houses and other stakeholders.

The media has many challenges and for many years, the industry has urged government to recognise the role of media and introduce laws that will enable journalists to do their work freely and without fear.

Botswana Editors Forum chairperson, Emang Mutapati called on government to introduce long-overdue laws on Freedom of Information to ensure the right to access information held by public authorities to all media to play the watchdog role effectively. “We’d, therefore, like to take this opportunity to encourage government to shore up several weaknesses and gaps in the legal framework protecting press freedom in Botswana by making several regulatory and policy reforms,” she said.

The media fraternity has been singing this song for the longest time and it has now become somewhat of a broken record. It is good that journalists are joining hands and are not tired of calling for reforms. Collaborations between different stakeholders such as MISA Botswana Chapter and Editors Forum can go a long way in amplifying the voices of journalists. MISA Botswana Chapter chairperson, Thomas Nkhoma touched on one of the most important subjects, often ignored, or set aside; the issue of working conditions.

It is a well-known fact that most media houses are not doing well financially, a challenge, which has forced most companies to trim their workforce, thus remaining with fewer workers who carry a heavy workload.

The issue of low salaries is not a secret either. Media workers in our country earn low salaries and many private media organisations have not increased employees’ salaries for many years.

The decision to ban advertising in private media by government proved fatal for the industry as a larger chunk of advertising revenue was from government. Most media companies have been experiencing declining revenue for the longest time, hence why several media houses resorted to retrenchments. While government is slowly relaxing the ban, advertising and placing adverts in private newspapers, it has not yet reached a good turnover rate. For companies to be able to improve conditions and remuneration for their employees there is a need for media organisations to be profitable.

Of course, there are also issues of exploitation amongst some media houses, where employers want to overwork journalists for very little salaries! Let's work together to bring change! Together we can!