TV news head quits over Bosch
2001-04-30 23:01
Gaborone - Head of Botswana Television news and current affairs Chris Bishop has resigned over government attempts to control news broadcasts. His move was triggered by a refusal by the government to allow him to air a documentary on the Bosch murder case and her subsequent execution.
"Bosch brought out what had been there all along," Bishop said in a telephone interview on Monday.
"There has been previous harassment and interference. The journalists at BTV and myself have often been harassed by officialdom. It has rendered the running of TV news impractical."
Bishop said after the refusal to allow the Bosch documentary on air, he heard that the Office of the President had said if the management of BTV could not control the station, it would send a (government) official to control the news department.
"It was mentioned to me by several officers of the department (of Information and Broadcasting, DIB). It would have amounted to censorship. That would be the end of BTV news," Bishop said.
"If the government wants to run BTV as a government information service, what is the point of having journalists working there?"
The Director of Information and Broadcasting, Andrew Sesinyi, has reportedly denied any knowledge of moves to control the news at BTV.
Documentary on Bosch case prepared
Bishop and his news team prepared a documentary on the Bosch case, but the Office of the President which exercises responsibility for broadcasting, would not allow it to be broadcast. A statement said it could have led to litigation against the government.
Mariette Bosch, 50, was executed in Botswana on March 31. She had been convicted in December 1999 for the murder of her best friend Maria Wolmarans. Bosch and Wolmarans's husband Tienie married a year after the killing during a period when she was on bail.
The Court of Appeal in January 2001 upheld her conviction and death sentence. Botswana President Festus Mogae refused Bosch's appeal for clemency no more than a week before she was hanged.
Denied access to husband and children
She was denied access to her husband and her children before the execution. They were not told the execution had been scheduled and learnt of her death on a news bulletin whilst driving to the prison on the Monday after she had been hanged.
Lawyers for Bosch said there could have been no reason in humanity for Bosch not having been given access to her loved ones before she was executed. "The callous and indecent haste of this execution requires investigation," they said and called for an inquiry.
Botswana's independent media, six major weekly newspapers and two radio stations, enjoy a remarkable degree of press freedom. Articles and editorials regularly criticise the president and his government, and while the government often replies in letters to the editors, no official action has ever been taken against them.
BTV and the Daily News free-sheet are under the wing of the government and controlled by the Director of Information and Broadcasting.
Four weeks after Bosch's execution, a row continues in the independent media over how she died and the advisability of Botswana continuing to retain the death penalty.
Opinion swinging towards abolition?
Every edition of every newspaper published since the execution has carried reports and readers' letters on it.
Opinion seems to be swinging towards the abolitionists.
In Botswana's largest-selling newspaper Mmegi on Friday a two-page feature argued that the real debate had yet to start.
"The debate has yet to catch fire. Capital punishment clearly negates the democratic values our society purports to cherish," the writer says.
"We seem determined to cling to these legalised killings. Our country has nothing to lose by abolishing this authoritarian punishment, it has everything to gain because (abolishment) can only boost its democratic credentials." - Sapa
- SAPA