MISA condemns Khama's threats
Correspondent | Thursday December 5, 2013 17:54
The renewed attacks started in Maun during the President’s Day holiday where the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) had gathered for an elective congress. When delivering a keynote address, the President told the gathering that some members of the media are biased in their reporting and do not dig facts before publishing.
He advised the gathering to share with the media what they feel is right because otherwise the media will have a field day defaming them for no reason besides making enormous profits.
MISA Botswana condemns such utterances by the head of state whose party rejected the Freedom of Information Bill in Parliament in 2013 and instead made promises which are yet to be fulfilled.
If indeed the media does not dig deep into issues, it is because information is held under lock and key in government and other public offices.
The bill had provisions calling for the release of information on request and under free will. Failure to do that, an Information Commissioner would be engaged for redress. Had that bill been adopted and passed by Parliament, such utterances might have had some basis. As though that was not enough, the President expressed similar sentiments when addressing the nation on November 4, 2013. His last sentence in his only paragraph about the media environment stated: “But even the most abusive output comes with a silver lining in that the barrage of criticism this government receives from much of the press has contributed in no small measure to our country’s superior global rankings in various surveys of democracy, tolerance and personal freedom.”
This time around, the President has once again labelled the media, in particular the private media, as abusive. But the Press Council of Botswana has not registered any complaint from the President in regard to violation of media ethics or professionalism.
Hence we call upon the President to follow laid down procedures of registering complaints and desist from delivering speeches that have the potential to pit the media against members of the public.
On Thursday November 28, 2013 the President told the High Consultative Council that there is a growing tendency to deliberately distort and mislead the public by some media practitioners and said this practice is driven by a desire to capture readership and profit or other agendas. He concluded by saying government will be extending legal services to public officers who have been the target of the media.
MISA Botswana views these as a threat and violation of freedom of expression by the head of state. These threats of litigation are aimed at engendering self-censorship and silencing media practitioners. The President is himself on record as having referred to out-of-court settlements resulting from the high cost of justice in Botswana.
Section 11(1) of the Constitution of Botswana provides that, “except with his or her own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his or her freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this section the said freedom includes freedom of thought.” Freedom of thought is important for the media as it provides additional protection for commentary on issues of public importance.
Mr President, during your State of the Nation address, the public and the media had high hopes that you would pronounce the delivery date for the tabling of the FOI Bill, but you instead dampened their hopes by announcing the coming of a counter bill, the Data Protection Bill. Why is it important to clamp down on information?
We call upon the President to engage relevant structures in the media if aggrieved and desist from lambasting the media as though they are resistant to advice. MISA Botswana remains available to engage with the President on all issues relating to freedom of expression and the media. We assert that a face-to-face engagement will yield better results than parties making public statements about each other in forums where the other has neither representation nor the opportunity to engage.
Buyani Zongwani, National Director
MISA Botswana