The privately-owned newspaper, “Okavango Observer”, was, on 22 January 1996, charged by Botswana’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) under Section 59 of the Alarming Publications Act. On 22 August, editor Caitlin Davies said that the paper had published in its 29 September 1995 edition a story about a notorious street gang known as “Ma Western” which […]
The privately-owned newspaper, “Okavango Observer”, was, on 22
January 1996, charged by Botswana’s Criminal Investigations
Department (CID) under Section 59 of the Alarming Publications
Act. On 22 August, editor Caitlin Davies said that the paper had
published in its 29 September 1995 edition a story about a
notorious street gang known as “Ma Western” which was assaulting
and terrorising people in Maun, in northern Botswana. Section 59
makes it an offence for any person who publishes any false
statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and
alarm or disturb public peace. The Section does not, however,
define “false.”
Maun Police confirmed that they had prepared a docket on
“Okavango Observer” in relation to the article published in
September 1995 under the title “Terror squad shocks Maun.”
Speaking to MISA, an officer who requested anonymity said: “The
paper is likely to appear in court.” Maun Police Station
Commander Morris Keaketswe would not give details of the case,
saying only that “I don’t know the position of the case now and I
am not commenting any further than that.”
Davies, however, reported that the newspaper had checked the
facts with Keaketswe last September, who could neither confirm
nor deny the existence of the gang and its criminal acts. “But
[a] few weeks after the story appeared in the newspaper, three
CID officers visited our offices wanting to talk to the reporter
who had written the article, Cobrie Kgaodi. Instead, police took
Cobrie to the police station,” she said, assuming that police
were probably following up the story. But Davies said: “We learnt
later that police were actually interrogating Cobrie.”
Before the CID officers formerly visited the newspaper offices on
22 January, Davies went on to say, a police officer told her:
“You are under arrest. You almost had me lose my job over your
story.” The officer reportedly said that police had prepared a
docket which he said had been sent to the Attorney General’s
office in the capital, Gaborone. “We will let you know when you
have to appear in court,”, Davies was told by the officer. On
January 22, police summoned her, publisher Anne Sandenbergh and
the paper’s designer, Andrew Dooly, to give statements at Maun
police station. “Andrew and I gave statements to police about the
story. We also gave the police our fax message we had earlier
sent to them asking to verify the report. We also gave police
their response to our message,” Davies said. She said that the
owner of the newspaper, Sandenbergh, refused to go to the police
station.
On 23 August, Botswana’s Head of Prosecutions in the Attorney
General’s office, Abedinego Tafa, denied that he had been given a
docket on “Okavango Observer”. “I am not aware of that at all.
But police may have decided to handle the matter themselves,” he
said, but stressed that it was an offence to alarm the public.
Davies, however, said she was worried about the police’s silence
over their case, adding: “We need to know our relationship with
the police and the government after visiting our offices and
questioning us. The government should say what we are allowed to
write on and what we are not allowed to and why. But to-date we
have heard nothing from the police and [that] makes us feel
nervous.”
