Stop harassment of the media

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday March 15, 2017 11:04

The INK journalists allege that seven armed plain-clothes security agents barred them near Mosu village, some 600 kilometres north eastern Gaborone and warned them never to set foot near President Ian Khama’s private compound lest they be shot dead. The journalists, one can assume, had been on a mission to investigate allegations of the first citizen using state resources and personnel, members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) to build his private home in Mosu.

These allegations border on corruption by the President. The government has given conflicting views about the happenings at this Mosu compound. About the latest harassment, government has even confirmed it in a press release. 

“The Government of Botswana has noted press statement issued by the ‘INK Centre for Investigative Journalism’ alleging ‘harassment of journalists’ in the context of the briefly stopped for questioning last week by security forces of three INK employees and/or associates - Ntibinyane Ntibinyane, Joel Konopo and Kaombona Kanani.

The three were detained after they sought to trespass into a restricted area that is the private property of His Excellency the President, without any authorisation or prior communication,” wrote government spokesperson Dr Jeff Ramsay.

Despite Ramsay’s statement, harassment of journalists by the Khama regime is well documented and it has now become a trend. About two years ago, The Gazette newspaper journalists and their attorney were detained by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC).

The DCEC ambushed the newspaper because they were working on a story that exposed corruption on certain powerful individuals and apparently the DCEC was investigating the claims.

This was a clear intention to intimidate the newspaper from exposing these individuals. In 2014 just a month before general elections the Sunday Standard editor, Outsa Mokone was arrested and slapped with sedition charge that he is busy fighting at the courts.

A year ago we saw another harassment by the police when they detained without access to legal representation of a freelance journalist, Sonny Serite.

Serite was writing a story about a certain officer at the Office of the President (OP) and he was intercepted when he was to meet with a source, who was also unfortunately detained and while the charges against the journalist have been dropped, the OP officer is not as lucky. 

These are just some of the examples that show just how intolerant the current government is to the media and scrutiny, and just how much the powers that be will do to conceal corruption by powerful people.

These violations of press freedom should teach us, the media in particular, is to stand as one, speak with one voice against this harassment by the overzealous security agents.

 

Today’s thought 

“Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” 

– Henry Anatole Grunwald