Failure of Media Self-Regulation? Documenting Stakeholders’ Attitude to the Botswana Media Complaints/Appeals Committees

Abstract

In Botswana, efforts at self-regulation resulted in the setting up of the Media Complaints and Appeals Committees in 2005 under the aegis of the Botswana Press Council. This study sought to find out the attitude of stakeholders to the committees by conducting intensive interviews with complainants, editors as well as members of the complaints and appeals committees. There were variances in our findings with complainants largely dissatisfied with the committees’ work while the committees felt they had done a good job by providing fair rulings. And media editors said that they complied with rulings of the complaints and appeals committees but complainants took the opposite view. While two press councils are in existence at the moment, the object lesson from the Botswana scenario is that if the media are effective in their self-regulation initiatives, this will likely keep government-initiated statutory press councils at bay. The study concludes that perhaps, citizen involvement would serve to break the present impasse and ensure a media that truly serves the public interest.