A crew from US Television, who were in the country conducting research in December last year, are up in arms against Government spokesperson Dr. Jeff Ramsay on why he allegedly ordered Ministers not to grant them interviews.
US-Television, which is an independent media that creates promotional country reports throughout the world, was allegedly refused permission to interview a number of ministers by Ramsay.
“It behoves us to understand why, after telling US Television that it is each Minister’s own decision to accept or deny an interview, Dr. Jeff Ramsay would renege on his word and order each Ministry to avoid us at all costs?” said Brian Frank, US Television’s International Business Analyst.
He revealed that the goal of US Television is and has always been to produce a program to present Botswana in a positive light, and to highlight the country’s assets.
“It is highly regretful that quite the contrary has been the result of our venture and we are left to wonder what offense has been caused. We trust that the kind and hospitable people of Botswana would put forth a reasonable and logical explanation as to put our minds at ease,” said Frank.
Frank added that US Television had initially agreed with the Ambassador of Botswana in Washington DC, Tebelelo Seretse, to produce a follow-up program highlighting investment opportunities and the consistent funding between the United States and Botswana.
“In October 2012, the US Television crew began creating the program. Upon the suggestion of the Ambassador, we met with Mr. Gobe Pitso, lead PR Officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who would help to facilitate interviews with the government Ministers,” Frank said. “The goal of the program was to highlight the transparency of the government, the upstanding Democracy, the use of international funds, the proper plans for poverty eradication, and the proper management of media within Botswana; showcase all of the public and private sector funding that Botswana has received and how Botswana is in need of additional funding,” said Frank.
He added that it was also at this time that Pitso directed them to Ramsay and at the meeting, US Television’s production plan was outlined for Ramsay, wherein they stated clearly that they intended to interview all government Ministers; the financing of the project would not fall under the responsibility of the government of Botswana.
“Subsequently, we followed the instructions of Dr. Ramsay as explained. Therefore, we were very puzzled to find out after three weeks that Dr. Ramsay informed us that he did not want to refer us to the Ministers,” revealed Frank.
The result was that without access to the Ministers, the program could not be done. “We then contacted Dr. Ramsay again to inform him of our decision to leave Botswana. It was then that he told us he had accredited us to produce the program but once again he would not recommend us to the Ministers,” said Frank.
At this point, Frank said, they decided that instead of ‘troubling’ Ramsay, they would approach each Minister to request for the interviews.
“Yet an additional three weeks passed and we were unable to get not even a single Minister interview, always given a multitude of excuses. In our investigation, we learned that the real reason why we were denied these interviews lay precisely in the hands of Dr. Ramsay.”
Apparently Dr. Ramsay had sent out an internal e-mail to the Ministers to not meet with us.
“Imagine our shock when this said letter was read back to our team? We hereby respectfully request an explanation for the turn of events. We are disconcerted and confused as to why one thing was said to us in the open when another sentiment lay hidden in the background?” wondered Frank.
But Ramsay is not taking the matter lying down, describing Frank as an arrogant and contemptuous man.
“…I likewise find it absolutely arrogant as well as contemptuous for Mr. Franck to suggest that he and his commercial cohorts are somehow entitled to access our Cabinet Ministers and others, whose willingness or not to give interviews to any media, including private marketing companies, is at any rate entirely at their own discretion. One seriously doubts any media company could expect such entitled access in the USA or Belgium,” said Ramsay.
He said US-Television is a private Visual Media Advertorial Company who make their money by sourcing sponsorship for paid programming.
“For the record, at the beginning of last month representatives of US-Television approached me seeking my active endorsement and support for their business venture. I refused after satisfying myself that what they were offering was not on balance in the public interest. This decision was made all the more easy by the failure of said company to disclose some basic information about their intended operations,” said Ramsay.
He said his office can play a facilitating role in assisting genuine international and domestic media coverage of Botswana, but it is not his office’s role to actively advance the private commercial interests of any company, much less one with zero local investment whose market claims may be doubted.
