Some years ago we warned that the government misuse of state media would one day come to haunt both the ruling party and its government.
Their key lackey at the Department of Information and Broadcasting retorted that there was no difference between Government and the ruling party.
It was a kiss of death.
The current situation where nobody believes a word that the state media says is not hard to explain.
It is simply a case of chickens coming home to roost.
For a long time government and the government party saw nothing wrong turning such state media institutions like Botswana Television, Daily News and Radio Botswana into their mouthpieces.
For them it all amounted to the perks and privilege that came with incumbency.
BTV was used to revile everybody and anybody who dared to raise a voice against the ruling party and its government.
Opposition parties were actively and systematically isolated from the airwaves.
Those holding dissenting views were either kept at bay or when allowed close by, edited out of context so as to make them look like buffoons.
At the height of it all, one could not help but feel we were fast shadowing North Korea.
A party official masquerading as a journalist saw nothing wrong reading a political message on television on behalf of the Dear Leader.
It was like living in Animal Farm territory.
It will get worse before it gets any better.
The situation was made all the worse by systematic dismantling of BTV infrastructure by transferring a whole generation of talented journalists who to their credit had resisted this reckless and wanton politicization of the institution.
We watched in dismay as professional journalists were crudely replaced by ruling party yes men and women who often appear reading the news wearing party colours if only to placate and reassure their ever vigilant political handlers and masters.
The most painful thing about it all is that journalists working for government agencies are easily the best in the country.
They have been trained in some of the world’s best journalism schools.
If only they could be allowed to do their job very much in the same way that it was the case when Botswana Television started under the guidance of Chris Bishop, a professional man who wanted to take BTV along the lines of BBC and SABC where he had previously worked.
Excessive use of spin such as that which has been playing on BTV for the last six years comes at a cost.
People can only accept and swallow propaganda up to a point.
And we have reached that point.
Beyond that they move away and try to look for something that they can trust.
The ruling party is currently on the ropes. For the first time in almost 50 years victory is not guaranteed.
And they know for a fact that BTV cannot save them because few people watch the station and even fewer people who watch it believe what the station says.
This alone should be a relief to opposition.
Instead of hankering to be allowed time on BTV, opposition parties should find alternative media platforms that are not only believable but which also reach bigger audiences than BTV.
And in today’s era of social media establishing such platforms should not be difficult.
A week or so ago we heard that BTV was working on a documentary deliberately weaved to portray opposition parties as a bunch of hotheads that cannot be trusted the country.
That too should be the least among opposition concerns.
The public distrusts BTV so much so that they believe to be true the opposite of what the station says.
In other words if BTV says opposition parties are irresponsible, the public will decipher that to mean they are more responsible than the party currently in power.
Current public distrust of BTV should be a wake-up call.
Abuse and over use of state institutions erode their moral capital culminating in the public loss of faith in such institutions.
Today the ruling party needs to use the BTV to connect with the voter, but owing to what happened say five years ago, the voter is simply not switching on the station.
