Journalists in Botswana are leaving for Public Relations.

Hi!

I have realized that in Botswana Journalists are leaving journalism to join the Public Relations industry.A typical example for those of you who are from Botswana is Benson Phuthego, the Public Relations officer for the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana. He used to be one of the best in the newsroom.But the big question is why did he run?

The first thing i have realized is money. public relations pays more than Journalism and it comes with mouth watering perks.PR practitioners sit in meetings together with their Board of Directors and they have their own big offices.But for Journalists one will find that congested in small cubicles in the news room's open plan.

There are more career opportunities in PR unlike in journalism which has very thin ranks to move up the ladder and in PR there is less pressure unlike working on tight stressful deadlines that journalists undergo everyday.

The funny part about this migration is that these companies are hiring former gatekeepers who have experience in filtering out puff and digging out real stories.So once they get this new jobs they can intelligently pile puff into news and hide real stories about their companies or clients.

Investigative stories that normally involve spending most of the time doing some research work are not cost effective to freelancers and full-time journalists do not have the luxury of time due to pressure to produce stories on tight deadlines. So these ex-journalists-cum-PR practitioners would easily feed them with ready-made stories about their companies or clients. Basically if you have friends in the media your company or clients would have better chances of getting favourable reporting from your media friends.But this is risky for the practitioners because the real truth might come out one day.

to conclude hectic lifestyle of a journalist suits a particular age and period of life. So probably some people leave to the corporate world for a stable environment free from the adrenaline of journalism. I see this movement as a major threat to the media industry.And we all know that any threat to the media is a threat to a country's democracy.

thanx guys

Tumelo Frederick ( LUCT, Cyberjaya)