Press freedom under attack

The raid of Sunday Standard offices on Tuesday by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and agents of Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) is said to be a long time joint operation.  

Sunday Standard Editor, Outsa Mokone was arrested on Monday on charges of sedition after his newspaper published an article linking President Ian Khama to a car accident. The article was authored by Senior Reporter, Edgar Tsimane who has since sought asylum in South Africa. On Tuesday security agents raided the newspaper and seized brown envelopes, black central processing unit (CPU) and floppy disk from the editor’s office.

Sources in the Intelligence community said the raid was a pretext to gain access to files in the newspaper’s server. “Charges of sedition have nothing to do with the newspaper but to identify the source of information. This was just an opportunity for them and the operation has achieved its long term plan,” said the source. Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Botswana), Director Buyani Zongwani said they are going to lobby different stakeholders to support Mokone. “As MISA we always knew that the government is going to use this draconian law to suppress journalists one day,” he said.

Chairman of the Press Council, Tshireletso Motlogelwa said they are happy about the work that the private media has lately done. “But we are very concerned about the conduct of the government because this is a serious threat to media freedom. We will continue writing issues that we feel are of interest to the public. This is an opportunity for us to challenge these laws because they are not helpful to our democracy,” he said. He added that they highly regard the judicial system.

Editors Forum Secretary, Kagiso Sekokonyane noted that they are still observing events as they unfold. “We understand that even though he was arrested Mokone has not fully been charged. Our hope is that the security personnel return the newspaper’s equipment so that it can continue with its work,” said Sekokonyane. Public relations officer at Botswana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner Christopher Mbulawa said the investigations into the raid of Sunday Standard office are still ongoing. “At the moment I cannot say when we will return the property because our investigations are still ongoing. The accused person was informed before the raid happened.

The search was related to charges laid against him,” said Mbulawa. When asked whether this was not an opportunity to gain access to Sunday Standard servers as alleged by some Mbulawa noted that, “When we do our job we do not disguise anything. We legally go to court and apply for the search warrant like we did against Mokone. The right procedure was followed. The investigating team is at liberty to keep them because we might end up using them at court as exhibits against him. I cannot disclose what we were looking for at the moment because our investigations are still ongoing,” he said.