A recent Afrobarometer survey reveals that majority of Batswana support the media’s role as a government watchdog and value media freedom, although the country remains sharply divided over whether journalists are truly free to operate without interference.
The survey paints a nuanced picture of a country long regarded as one of Africa’s more stable democracies. While most Batswana back an aggressive watchdog press, many also believe media freedom has deteriorated in recent years.
Over three quarters of Batswana said the media should have the right to publish views and ideas without government control, placing Botswana among the strongest supporters of press freedom on the continent. ‘In several countries, support for media freedom exceeds three-fourths of the population, including Mauritius (86%), Seychelles (85%), Congo-Brazzaville (80%), Lesotho (77%), Chad (76%), and Botswana (76%),’ states Afrobarometer – a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life.
According to the survey conducted across 38 countries in 2024 and 2025, the same proportion, 76%, also said the media should continuously investigate and report on government mistakes and corruption rather than avoid negative coverage that could ‘harm the country.’ The findings come as scrutiny intensifies over governance and accountability in Botswana following the release of several high-profile forensic and corruption-related investigations.
Confidence in the actual state of media freedom appears far less settled. Only 52% of respondents in Botswana said the media is ‘somewhat’ or ‘completely’ free to report without censorship or government interference, while 41% said the press ‘Not very/Not at all’ free.
Furthermore, Botswana recorded one of the continent’s steepest declines in perceptions of media freedom over the past five years. The share of citizens who believe the media is free fell by 20 percentage points between the 2019/2021 and 2024/2025 survey rounds, according to Afrobarometer data. Only Guinea, Lesotho and Nigeria registered sharper declines.
The survey suggests that even in countries where democratic institutions are relatively strong, public anxiety over media independence may be rising as political polarisation, state influence and pressure on journalists intensify across Africa.
Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research network that surveyed 45,600 respondents across 38 African countries, found that support for media freedom remains a majority position across most of the continent. However, perceptions of whether the press is actually free remain deeply mixed.
In addition, the report also highlighted a broader contradiction. Africans who believe their media is already free are slightly less likely to defend unrestricted press freedom than those who believe journalists operate under constraints.