Writing in the Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa in 2008, Professor Tachilisa Balule stated that some states in SADC still have anachronistic laws on their statute books that unduly insulate public functionaries from criticism over how they conduct public affairs. For Botswana, without a blink one can state here that such law is the notorious Sedition Law. The nation will remember that in September 2014, a warrant of arrest was issued for Sunday Standard newspaper editor, Outsa Mokone, charging him with sedition after an article on the 31 August 2014 edition, entitled “President hit in car while driving alone at night”.
A subsequent application by the Sunday Standard attorney Dick Bayford, sought to challenge, the lawfulness of the arrest warrant, the fact that Mokone was denied access to his lawyers immediately after his arrest, and the constitutionality of the offence of sedition. The harassment of Mokone at the time drew attention to the increasingly constrained space for freedom of press in Botswana, to date this law on sedition still remains in our books. My historical understanding of this law is that it was originally crafted by the British government in 1860 to deal with any harsh criticisms of the colonial government and prevent any offences against the colonial state. The sedition laws were enacted by the British government under specific circumstances to protect and advance colonialism. Britain long repealed it from its books. Even the person who was being protected has since died.
Question is, why does our country, Botswana still keep this law? In my view such laws should have no place in modern democracies governed by free speech and expression. The Democracy which we claim to subscribe to demands that every citizen be allowed to think, express, and organise “disaffection” against the government. This why we call on our government that as Botswana joins the world to mourn Queen Elizabeth who died on 08 September 2022, we should also do away with a law that he she did not like so much that she made show that it’s taken off her country’s books.
In many countries these laws have been found to limit the right to freedom of expression unjustifiably. This has been the case in our country. While the legality of sedition laws has been considered by the courts of Botswana, where the High Court upheld their constitutionality, it is of interest to us as media practitioners to note that the courts during the Mokone v Attorney General and Others did advise on the need to consult with parliament to consider a motion that will repeal the Sedition Law. This court pronouncement is convincing enough that this is a bad law hence our call on the state to consider doing away with it. Sedition must go the Mmamosadinyana way. We also want to remind the state of the critical role played by Journalists in promoting and facilitating the right to freedom of expression.
To promote and facilitate freedom of expression effectively, journalists should be free to perform their duties without fear of reprisals, intimidation or harassment that Mokone and the Sunday Standard editorial team went through in 2014. Victor Baatweng is an outgoing board member at MISA Botswana. MISA is a media advocacy group with chapters in six different southern African countries. Baatweng will be seeking re-election at the upcoming special MISA Botswana AGM due in three months’ time alongside #teamintegrity which seeks to push on Botswana government to repeal Sedition law and repeal amongst others Whistle Blowers Act.
