Botswana: A political party pledges support to enact Freedom of Information Act

An executive member of the newly registered Botswana Movement for Democracy (BHD) party, Botsalo Ntuane has pledged his party’s full support to MISA-Botswana in the fight to repeal the Media Practitioners Act (MPA) and the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

 

When giving a solidarity message during the World Press Freedom Day, 2010, Ntuane who is also a member of parliament for Gaborone West South constituency said the society must be open and liberal in order for them to prosper. “What is the Government hiding from us” he asked rhetorically, adding that the Government is holding information on behalf of the people and does not own the information in its possession.  He said consistent with progressive democracies a legal process needs to be put in place for citizens to access information. This he said will promote issues of trust and accountability. He said all laws in Botswana must enjoy universal acceptance, which he said it is not the case with the MPA.

 

“As BMD we will seek to repeal the MPA so that all stakeholders formulate a law that does not serve the interests of a few, but of our entire society”, he said. Ntuane said by the commencement of the next session of Parliament in July his party will pursue these matters with renewed vigour.

 

BMD is a splinter party of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party and is expected to lead to a number of defections from ruling party Members of Parliament.

 

The 2010 World Press Freedom was held on 7 and 8 May. The topic for the panel was, “Access to Information Law: Is it overdue?”. The panelists were Advocate Sidney Pilane who had worked as the President’s Special Advisor for 8 years, Sello Motseta, a journalist and a publisher, Justin Hunyepa a trade unionist and Log Raditlhokwa who is lecturer at the University of Botswana. On 8 May 2010, there was a march and rally addressed by a veteran politician and analyst, Mike Dingake. Multitudes of people attended both sessions, including media practitioners and members of the society.

 

The commemorations continued to another town, Francistown on 15 May 2010 where there was a march and gathering addressed by a local Human Rights attorney, who is also a politician, Morgan Moseki.

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Reagan Malumo

Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat

21 Johann Albrecht St

Private Bag 13386

Windhoek

Namibia

Phone: +264 61 232 975

Fax: +264 61 248 016

Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

Official Email: reagan@misa.org

Private Email: reagan32002@yahoo.com

 

- May 17, 2010 by MISA

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Source : www.misa.org (received via email alert 18.05.10)