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------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent:              Sun, 28 Mar 1999 06:13:58 -0800 (PST)
From:                   Botswana MCC <botswanamedia@yahoo.com>
To:                     jesse@tao.ca, media-l@tao.ca
Subject:                BMCC CYBER EXPRESS vol. 2, no. 1
via:    media-l@tao.ca

                                                              BMCC CYBER
EXPRESS vol. 2, no. 1 February-March 1999

The global voice of the Botswana Media consultative The Botswana Media
Consultative Council (Trust) registered globally at
botswanamedia@yahoo.com

Headlines:

> BMCC General meeting 8 April
> BMCC membership swells,
> BMCC welcomes progress in latest round of public- private sector media
consultations.
> Why BMCC?

BMCC Contacts:
        P.O. Box 2679 Gaborone
        Tel. (267) 319179
        Fax. (267) 324313
     e-mail: botswanamedia@yahoo.com

BMCC website coming soon!

Dear Friends of Freedom of Expression-

Welcome to the latest addition of the BMCC's Cyber Express. We are now
getting ready for our big General Meeting scheduled for Thursday, 8
April 6:00-8:30 PM at the Bonatla Restaurant, which is located within
the Botswana National Productivity Centre, in Gaborone. In addition to
the important responsibility of electing Trustees to take us into the
next millennium, the meeting's agenda will include reports on progress
by the Interim Committee, Media Advisory Council and Private Sector
Media Policy Task Force for Broadcasting. The gathering is being
sponsored by MultiChoice.

With respect to the election of the Board of Trustees, members are
reminded that, in accordance with article 11 of the Deed of Trust, the
BMCC Board is to be elected from a) two members nominated by the
Botswana Journalists Association (BOJA), and b) six additional members
which should include at least one representative each for Broadcasting,
Corporate Media, Visual Production and Public Media. In addition it is
proposed that article 11 be amended so as to provide for an additional
Board member for te Advertising sector, nominated by the Botswana
Association of Accredited Practitioners in Advertising. Please remember
that only paid up institutional and individual members will be entitled
to vote.

Chibuya Ntsimanyana, Secretary-General

****************************************************
Membership Form for more details on how to become a member contact
botswanamedia@yahoo.com or chibbz@yahoo.com

I/my organization _____________________________________, wishes to
become a full/international member of the Botswana Media Consultative
Council (Trust) for the twelve month period beginning
__________________.

Address:

Tel./Fax:

e-mail:

1998 fees: all individuals P10, institutions P 50
******************************************************

> BMCC Membership swells-

In mid-February the BMCC began its 1999 membership drive. As of going to
press 32 institutional have already been recruited. Collectively they
are already representative of our nations growing multi-media
diversity. Individual membership, both pledged and paid up, currently
stands at 53. Pledged individual members are reminded that they should
pay up before the General Meeting.

> BMCC Welcomes progress in latest round of public-private sector media
consultations:

The interim Board of the Botswana Media Consultative Council (BMCC)
welcomes the progress made in the latest round of public-private sector
media consultations. On 26 February the Media Advisory Council, on which
the BMCC is represented, met for the first time. During the
course of the meeting it was agreed that the Media Advisory Council
would accept the recommendation of the 3 December 1998 Media
Consultation Committee, chaired by the Vice-President, to move forward
with consideration of BMCC proposals for a Freedom of Information Act.

The Media Advisory Council further recommended that its composition be
increased from twelve to sixteen with the inclusion of one additional
government representative and three additional private sector
representatives. It was further agreed that the Private Sector Task
Force for Broadcasting Legislation, chaired by Dr. Ramsay, should
complete its work under the auspices of the Media Advisory Council.
These recommendations was confirmed at the 4 March meeting of the Media
Consultative Committee.

Membership on the Media Advisory Council currently consists of two
representatives each from the Botswana Journalists Association (BOJA),
Botswana Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and
BMCC, individual representatives from the Botswana Association of
Accredited Practitioners in Advertising, Botswana Council of NGOs, Law
Society, Press Club, University and soon to be established National
Broadcasting Board, as well as government representatives from the
Office of the President, Department of Information and Broadcasting, and
Ministries of Education and Home Affairs (Culture).

The Media Advisory Council is empowered to consider both the immediate
and long-term policy concerns of media stakeholders. It reports to the
High Level Consultative Council.  A four member sub-committee,
consisting of a representative each from BOJA, BMCC, MISA and the
Department of Information and Broadcasting,  have been tasked with
drafting the Media Advisory Council1s operating guidelines.

****************************************************
For back issues of the Cyber Express contact botswanamedia@yahoo.com
****************************************************
"Why BMCC?" by  Jeff Ramsay

(published in February 1999 issue of Business and Financial Times after
being banned from Mmegi column "Back 4d Future")

Of late there  has been much comment, some of it unfortunately quite
misleading, about the recently established Botswana Media Consultative
Council (BMCC). As but one of its cooks, I may be biased in affirming
that the BMCC has the potential to become an indispensible vehicle for
promoting the collective interests of the local media industry.

The BMCC was only registered in September 1998. As Botswana's spiciest
new NGO, the it  was certainly not formed to curry favour with
politicians. Neither was it seasoned to stew in any other organisation's
curdled gravy. As its name suggests, it is rather an overdue effort to
bake a local Media Council. Similar Councils already exist in other
parts of the world.

The potential for having a Botswana based institution that is
structurally representative of diverse media sectors, e.g. Advertising,
Broadcasting, Corporate Communications, New Information Technologies,
and Visual Production, as well as journalists working  within the public
and private print media, manifested itself to the BMCC's organizers last
year. Its inspiration was the role of the ad-hoc Media Consultative
Forum in successfully mobilising opposition to the draft Mass
Communications Bill  and support for the private sector Media Policy
Task Force in its subsequent negotiations with government over the
Broadcasting Act.

In recent months,  the need for an independent Council has been enhanced
by the Office of the President's agreement to involve all sections of
the media in institutionalised public-private sector dialogue on broader
issues of common concern at both the Ministerial and High Level
Consultative Council levels.

Last year the Botswana chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA), in alliance with the Botswana Journalists Associations (BOJA)
and other media stakeholders, played a leading, indeed sustaining, role
the activities of the Forum and its Task Force (I should know, I was
then and now MISA's  Vice-Chairman, as well as the Chairman of the
Forum/Task Force).  With its regional network and donor funded capacity
MISA could potentially also act as a facilitator within the BMCC, but
this is an internal matter that its membership must ultimately consider.
Unfortunately there is already a campaign to discredit the BMCC by
publicly suggesting that it is simply a breakaway rival of MISA. This
misconception, which is seemingly rooted in MISA's own internal
politics, and certainly has no basis in any of pronouncements thus far
put forward by the BMCC itself, can only serve to needlessly polarise
our nation's already divided media fraternity.

The current quarterly media dialogue sessions, which were initiated by
the Vice-President in  April 1998, provide a historic opportunity for
stakeholders to work together towards creating an enabling environment
for multi-media development. This potential was confirmed by the
progress made at the last, December 1998, session in which consensus was
reached for the formation of an inclusive Media Advisory Council. This
body, whose membership will consist of three members nominated by
Government, two from the BMCC, two from MISA, and one each from BOJA,
the Law Society, the University, the Botswana Council of NGO's
(BOCONGO), and the soon to be established National Broadcasting Board,
is empowered to consider all matters pertaining to the industry.

The Advisory Council has already been been given the task of moving
forward with  the BMCC's "Proposed Guidelines for a Freedom of
Information  Act." Over the past month this 26 page document has been
widely circulated both locally and internationally, as hardcopy and via
the BMCC's electronic newsletter The Cyber Ex-press. As a recently
registered and evolving Media Council the BMCC has also already made
progress in recruiting a paid up membership that overlaps, but is
nonetheless distinct from, those of BOJA and MISA . They, the individual
and corporate members, are the Council's ultimate mandate. To assure
that the BMCC remains true to its mission ofserving as a unified voice
for its membership's diverse interests, its Deed of Trust provides for
sectional representation at the Board level. BOJA is thus recognised as
a representative body for journalists within the Council.

The BMCC's organizing committee is committed to convening a General
Meeting during the first half of 1999, which will be mandated to
consider any amendments to the Trust Deed, as well as elect a  Board of
Trustees. Such amendments may prove useful from time to time to assure
that the Council becomes as representative as possible of all industry
stakeholders.

Finally, as we approach the millennium, it should be appreciated that a
modern information age society will inevitably give birth to a range of
representative institutions. The media never has been, and never will be
a monolith. True media activists will confront divergent as well as
complimentary agendas. This should be obvious to any who recognise that
the media encompasses interests that go beyond the controlling concerns
of a handful of private newspapers.

Even within the small circle of the private print media the goals of
workers and owners are not synonymous. BOJA, with its International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) affiliation, and workerist agenda has
its role to play. MISA was conceived as a regional advocacy network.

For its part the BMCC is an emerging  forum for the expression of our
domestic multi-media diversity.




































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