#Botswana: Newspaper editor Outsa Mokone faces two-year jail sentence on archaic charge of sedition https://t.co/4JxO2OTTzD pic.twitter.com/69yequkbLr
— CIVICUS Alliance (@CIVICUSalliance) January 10, 2017
Expression
The ongoing harassment of the Sunday Standard newspaper editor Outsa Mokone has drawn attention to the increasingly constrained space for freedom of press in Botswana. Mokone was first arrested in September 2014, on charges of sedition for covering President Ian Khama's involvement in an unreported traffic incident. After appealing against the charges, and being granted bail on the 16th December, Mokone is set to reappear in court on 26th January for a status hearing. If convicted, the charge of sedition carries a sentence of up to 2 years in prison.
As the first person to be prosecuted under sedition laws in the history of Botswana, many fear that the authorities' harassment of Mokone is politically motivated. The charges come after the Sunday Standard was involved in several investigative pieces exposing government complicity in corruption. In a recent interview, Mokone explained:
'A lot of money had been siphoned off through the Intelligence Services. They simply do not have to account for it. They were giving tenders to themselves and friends and family. We ran a number of stories. Around the same time the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) was investigating the head of the Intelligence and we were able to get hold of the docket and started running the investigation. The DCEC went to court to stop us...'
Mokone's case has become symbolic of a declining respect for freedom of the press in Botswana. Many free speech advocates have pointed out that the Sunday Standard is one of the few independent media outlets left in Botswana. Furthermore, the use of archaic colonial legislation to persecute independent dissent is fundamentally incompatible with constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression.
Peaceful Assembly
In December, the Trade Union Movement in Botswana vowed to resort to mass demonstrations in order, among other things, to force the government to respect workers' rights to demonstrate and protest. This followed the signing into law by the government of amendments to the Trade Disputes Act. The amended Act takes away the right of certain categories of employees to strike after listing them as "essential services", thereby constraining them from being able to unionise, demonstrate and assemble. The implementation of the Act will also negatively impact on Botswana's obligations with regards to international labour law, which protects workers right to organise and demonstrate.