Today, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day, commemorated globally under the theme “Shaping a Future at Peace.” As Botswana joins the rest of the world in marking this day, it does so with little cause for celebration and every reason for sober reflection.

For the first time in recent memory, the country has failed to organise national commemorative activities. The absence is not accidental. It is symbolic of a media sector under strain financially, institutionally and regrettably, politically.

World Press Freedom Day was born in Africa through the 1991 Windhoek Declaration, which reaffirms that a free, independent and pluralistic media is central to democracy and development. As the MISA Botswana Chapter, we remain guided by these principles.

Yet in Botswana today, the warning signs are increasingly difficult to ignore. While the 2024 general elections raised expectations of a reset of the relations between the state and the media, nearly two years later, that optimism has faded. In its place, familiar patterns are re-emerging, more subtle, more sophisticated and more difficult to confront.

That is because media capture is no longer overt. It now operates through administrative decisions, economic pressure and strategic appointments that quietly redefine the boundaries of editorial independence.

Such concern is particularly evident in ongoing developments at the state broadcaster. Reforms that were meant to transform it into a genuinely independent public media institution increasingly appear to lean towards control rather than autonomy.

According to UNESCO’s World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development (2022–2025) report, efforts by governments and powerful actors to control media have increased by 48 per cent.

Botswana is not isolated from this pattern. It is beginning to mirror it. Changes within the Department of Broadcasting Services are increasingly being read not as neutral bureaucratic adjustments but as part of a quiet purge of those considered politically inconvenient or ideologically unreliable.

Furthermore, the continued delay in releasing the 2025 Ministerial Media Law Review Task Team report is yet another mystery that has deepened uncertainty in the media industry.

The process raised expectations across the industry, yet the report remains unpublished and its recommendations unknown. While a new Media Bill has been introduced, legislation alone cannot substitute for transparency and meaningful reform.

Equally concerning is the tone of public discourse. Statements that cast doubt on the credibility of the media, especially coming from the head of state, that 90 per cent of media reports are fake, risk legitimising hostility towards journalists and reinforcing a culture of self-censorship.

Globally, UNESCO reports a 63 per cent rise in self-censorship among journalists, an indicator of environments where pressure is felt even without direct instruction. Botswana is showing early signs of this trajectory.

The risks are not abstract. More than 300 journalists were killed worldwide between 2022 and 2025.

While Botswana has not experienced such extremes, the lesson is clear: the erosion of press freedom often begins quietly through delegitimisation, pressure and the normalisation of control.

Such is further reflected in Botswana’s declining media freedom standing. According to the report ‘A Democracy at the Crossroads: Mapping Threats to the Media in Botswana,’ the country has dropped from 42nd position globally in 2015 to 81st in 2025. This is a clear signal that the media environment is under strain.

MISA Botswana Chapter also notes, with concern, the growing polarisation within the media fraternity, particularly the apparent attempts to accord preferential treatment to one media structure over another.

This undermines the principle that both MISA Botswana and the Botswana Editors Forum are critical pillars meant to serve the collective interests of the media sector, not political expediency.

We caution against any attempts to elevate one structure over another for political convenience, as this risks weakening institutional integrity. A divided media is a weakened media and ultimately, a weakened democracy.

Botswana now stands at a crossroads. Consequently, the choice is between a media that serves the public interest and one that adapts to the preferences of power.

World Press Freedom Day 2026 must, therefore, be more than symbolic. It must prompt decisive action, beginning with the immediate release of the Media Law Review Task Team report and a renewed commitment to safeguarding editorial independence.

Because in the end, press freedom is not about journalists. It is about citizens and whether they know enough to govern themselves wisely.

Issued by:

MISA Botswana National Governing Council