{"id":2004,"date":"2022-02-01T10:12:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T10:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/cpj-calls-on-authorities-in-botswana-to-reject-bill-on-warrantless-surveillance"},"modified":"2022-02-01T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T11:29:56","slug":"cpj-calls-on-authorities-in-botswana-to-reject-bill-on-warrantless-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/cpj-calls-on-authorities-in-botswana-to-reject-bill-on-warrantless-surveillance","title":{"rendered":"CPJ calls on authorities in Botswana to reject bill on warrantless surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b> Botswana authorities should retract or reform a bill that could help police and other investigators intercept journalists\u2019 communications without oversight, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Criminal Procedure and Evidence (Controlled Investigation) Bill was published in the government gazette on January 12, according to a press release by local media groups condemning the bill and media reports. Spencer Mogapi, a newspaper editor and chair of the Botswana Editors Forum, which collaborated on the press release, told CPJ by phone on Friday, January 28, that the bill could be expedited through parliament and signed into law by President Mokgweetsi Masisi this week. CPJ reviewed a copy of the bill shared by Tefo Phatshwane, the director of the Botswana chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The bill would grant investigators the power to intercept communications without a warrant for up to 14 days if authorized by the head of an investigatory authority to probe offenses or prevent them from being committed, according to CPJ\u2019s review of the bill. CPJ has documented the arrest and prosecution of journalists in Botswana, and local police\u2019s use of digital forensics tools in 2019 and 2020 to extract thousands of files from journalists\u2019 devices, including communications and contacts, in efforts to identify sources of their reporting. Companies that facilitate communication could see their directors imprisoned for up to 10 years if they fail to install hardware or software to enable interception; anyone that does not provide decryption keys so authorities can access encrypted information could be jailed for up to six years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBotswana\u2019s parliament should scrap the controlled investigation bill, which threatens journalists\u2019 ability to communicate privately with sources,\u201d said Angela Quintal, CPJ\u2019s Africa program coordinator. \u201cAuthorities should implement laws that protect journalists\u2019 privacy and safety, not expose them to surveillance without oversight.\u201d Jovial Rantao, chairperson of regional press association The African Editors Forum, described the bill in a statement as the \u201cworst piece of legislation to have emerged in Botswana, the Southern African region and the rest of the continent in recent history.\u201d The Southern Africa Editors\u2019 Forum expressed similar alarm over the bill. Reached by phone and messaging app on Friday, Batlhalefi Leagajang, Masisi\u2019s press secretary, told CPJ the bill was \u201cnot under the ambit of the presidency\u201d and the president would allow the parliamentary process to proceed before acting. Botswana government spokesperson John-Thomas Dipowe acknowledged CPJ\u2019s emailed questions about the bill on Friday, January 28, but did not respond before publication. According to social media posts related to the bill on January 27, Botswana\u2019s minister of defence, justice and security, Kagiso Thomas Mmusi, said there was a need to have a law that could plug legal and security gaps relating to issues of money laundering and financing of terrorism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\">Botswana<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. Botswana authorities should retract or reform a bill that could help police and other investigators intercept journalists\u2019 communications without oversight, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence (Controlled Investigation) Bill was published in the government gazette on January 12, according to a press release by local media [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5,8,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-2004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CPJ calls on authorities in Botswana to reject bill on warrantless surveillance - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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