DIS apologises
Larona Makhaiza | Monday July 31, 2023 06:00
During the raid, Mmegi Editor Ryder Gabathuse and Senior Reporter Innocent Selatlhwa were arrested and Magosi said he has no choice but to apologise for the acts.
Last week Thursday, when Mmegi newspaper was on its main deadline, the newsroom had unexpected visitors as a team of DIS investigators arrested the editor and ferried him to their notorious Sebele interrogation centre. Senior reporter, Selatlhwa had already been arrested while at his home and was taken during the day to Sebele as well.
On Saturday late afternoon, Magosi and some of his executives, met with Mmegi scribes at the President Hotel, where he apologised for the raid at the DPC premises, publisher of Mmegi and its sister titles, The Monitor and MmegiOnline.
He assured the scribes that he had halted the investigations.
"I want to assure you that after all that had happened, as the accounting officer at the DIS, I have taken it upon myself to halt the investigations in the best interest of media freedom which we respect as an institution," Magosi had said. He also reminded the scribes that when he took over as the DG of the DIS in 2018, he made a vow to work well with the media and respect the space practitioners occupy.
"You will remember that when I took over as the substantive DG, I introduced the public relations and communications section within the institution in an endeavour to open the DIS to the public as I was aware people considered us a rogue institution," he had emphasised in a meeting with the Mmegi team. He made a vow to ensure that they don't pollute the media space with raids and detentions in future as they recognise the role played by the media in a democratic dispensation. Magosi was equally worried about the leakages at the DIS where he also vowed to get to the bottom of issues within the institution rather than blaming the media for the incessant leakages.
"As an institution and a democratic country, we know the benefits of a free media. We have plans in place to continue interacting with the media in its pluralism," Magosi told Mmegi journalists.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday as the accounting officer of the security organ, Magosi revealed that his subordinates were wrong to have raided Mmegi and arrested the two journalists.
“A human being will always make mistakes and I want to say anywhere my officers had made mistakes, I duly apologise on their behalf and I have made moves to correct the situation,” Magosi said at the PAC.
To show that his security organ is remorseful for what transpired between the security organ and Mmegi journalists, Magosi revealed to the PAC that they reached out to relevant stakeholders to amicably deal with what had transpired between the two.
“I met with the Botswana Editors Forum (BEF) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana Chapter last Saturday where we deliberated on a lot of issues involving the arrest of the Mmegi journalists. And I want to say we will never see a repeat of a similar incident going forward,” he stated. The DG stated that his wish is to see the nation of Botswana at total peace and should put behind them what happened at Mmegi as resolved amicably. “We will never see the recurrence of such incidents going forward.
I am now assuring the nation that we won't have any problem with the media,” vowed Magosi. Magosi emphasised that his organisation would try and make it a norm to continuously engage with the media and share pertinent issues.
“Back in 2018, we had strong engagements with the media but when we appointed public relations officers, I left everything to them. And from our meeting last week, we realised had we had these meetings we could have avoided the Mmegi incident,” he said. He highlighted that there is a strong need for media engagements.
“We decided that when necessary, we will meet with the media oftentimes,” he said. Commenting on a question raised by legislator Wynter Mmolotsi, Member of Parliament for Francistown South who had asked Magosi if the move by DIS was an intimidation of the media, he refuted the claims.
“The media’s job is to inform and we acknowledge that the media will always give an opportunity to say our side of the story and once they do that, they provide a balanced story and I repeat we do not have a problem with the media,” Magosi stated.
The DIS boss added that the security organ is currently in the process of returning people's gadgets, as they want to make things right with people. He said they have already made great strides in the matter. “The majority of gadgets that have not been returned are the ones retained for further investigations and there are only a few of them.
And there is one journalist who will also be getting his camera back,” he highlighted. He further explained allegations of leakages at the DIS: "Leakages will always be there and they will always be there for different purposes.
Some will be good and some will be bad for national security. They will always continue to be there as the media continue to inform the people,” acceded Magosi. “And I am leading a very unhappy organisation, we have our internal problems,” he said.