Promoting and safeguarding media pluralism in Botswana: an assessment of legal risks

Democracy is said to thrive on media pluralism. A pluralistic media promotes free debate of diverse political views and opinions in a democratic political system. While media pluralism is an indispensable element of a democratic society, measuring it is a contentious issue. Different methods can be used to measure media pluralism depending on the focus and objectives of the study. One approach is not to measure media pluralism but focus on monitoring it so that appropriate remedial action can be taken where media pluralism is under threat. This risk-based approach detects risks to media pluralism and shows the underlying causes so that policy-makers may take informed decisions when setting priority areas and shaping policies. This paper adopts a risk-based approach to monitoring media pluralism in Botswana and focuses on legal risks.