It is a well known fact now that the United Nations General Assembly has declared May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. This day was established to raise awareness on the importance of the freedom of the press across different nations. It is a day to remind nations to uphold the right of freedom expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 which says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
A joint statement by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2012 states: “Freedom of expression is one of our most precious rights. It underpins every other freedom and provides a foundation for human dignity. Free, pluralistic and independent media is essential for its exercise.” Where are we as a nation on this important matter of freedom to hold opinions without interference? Well, generally Botswana provides for this right. However, this does not mean because you have the right, many want to hear your expression of your rights. We are still a largely intolerant society. We wish to hear that which we agree with and not opinions, views and arguments which flow against our entrenched views. At political, moral and religious levels, the right views are our views and theirs. However freedom of expression seems to entail a position that those with different views will have space to ventilate their divergent views. The Setswana proverbs express the importance of the freedom to speak regardless of how terrible your contribution might be perceived by your audience: mafoko a kgotla a mantle otlhe as well as kgosi thotobolo e olela matlakala or mmualebe o bua la gagwe gore monalentle a tle a le tswe. These Setswana idiomatic expressions have for many years shielded both the idiot and the genius to coexist in the kgotla. However with the disappearance of the strong kgotla system sometimes the idiot’s words flourish unchecked by the opinions of the genius. In other cases the dominant voice of the genius chases the feeble idiot’s opinion.
It is now a truism that men and women of the press are the de facto watchdogs who consistently place politicians and business leaders under tremendous pressure demanding of them to account on all matters that they the press men and women consider to be in the public interest. What hasn’t been achieved however is a clear answer to who really watches the watchdogs when the watchdogs are doing their watching. The answer that has been offered by some self-regulation through the Press Council of Botswana. That sounds convincing to media personnel; but it really sounds like legislatures determining their salaries in parliament.
One criticism however that many in the press must confront is the language through which they report. Much of our journalism is still through the language which alienates much of our rural communities. English still dominates our media houses. The papers are still predominantly English. The only Setswana paper, Mokgosi, closed down in 2005. Mmegi as well as The Daily News are still the only papers struggling along with their two pages of Setswana text. Apart from that, the entire newspaper domain is dominated by English.
The radio stations are no better either. The better one in this regard is Radio Botswana which has been demonized by many in the private media as a mouthpiece of the ruling party/government. If indeed the claim is true, then the government has chosen the best language to reach the people. Obviously not everyone in Botswana speaks Setswana as a native tongue since Botswana is a highly multilingual society. However, one thing that works in Botswana’s favour is that over 80 percent of Botswana’s population speaks and uses the Setswana language on a daily basis. Therefore to reach many residents it makes political and business sense to use the local language. This is one area which has been missed by Botswana’s papers and radio stations. However, there is a glimmer of hope.
Stations such as Dumafm have bits of Setswana news and most of the radio stations’ presenters use Setswana liberally. I have so far made reference to only two languages: Setswana and English. As noted above, Botswana is very rich with a diversity of languages. Most of Botswana’s languages are still not used on the radio, television or the papers.
Many have laid the blame at the door of government for this anomaly. This criticism is not at all accurate. There is nothing that hinders business men and women to start private radio stations which broadcast in indigenous languages. The truth is that many are not committed to the plight of their minority languages. They pay lip service to their languages’ development, research and promotion. When it comes to putting their money where their mouths are, they recoil into do-nothing-ism. There needs to be greater commitment from businessmen and women, researchers, politicians, academics and many others to demonstrate commitment to their languages. Local languages are key to a free, pluralistic and independent media. How can the media claim to be truly pluralistic when they are not linguistically pluralistic? How can the local media run the entire media business through translation? It translates local stories and events into English. Inevitably much of it ends up lost in translation. Perhaps there is a need to reconsider the language question in the Botswana media. As we celebrate Botswana Press Freedom Day this week, an appropriate question is: in whose language?
