Botswana: CFWIJ Condemns The Legal Harassment Against Michelle Teise
Location: Botswana
Date: April 15, 2021
Michelle Teise, a correspondent for a news outlet, Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler, was arrested on January 28, in Gaborone along with four other colleagues. Michelle was released along with her colleagues on February 7 after police charged them with two counts of criminal trespassing for entering two houses on January 25 and 27. The crew entered the houses in search of Obakeng Badubi, a 37 years old man who had disappeared on January 4, 2021. Michelle, with her fellow reporter and crew, was investigating his disappearance as the outlet publishes the stories of disappeared people.
Moeladilothok staff had their last hearing on April 15 in which the state withdrew charges against them. The next hearing was supposed to occur in June but the date is not scheduled. CFWIJ condemns the persistent intimidation against Michelle and demands judicial authorities to drop the criminal charges against the journalist and let her work without causing any impediment.
Michelle was arrested again along with her colleagues between March 26-30. She was taken into custody along with news outlet driver Tshireletso Badubi from the southern Mmopane village. She was on an assignment to investigate the disappearance of Obakeng Badubi. Police detained all five members of the crew in the police cells in Gaborone and confiscated their mobile phones and computers. This time the crew was granted bail on April 1. They were charged with six counts of criminal trespass and one count of seditious offenses. The criminal trespass charges were related to the crew's continuous activities in order to investigate Badubi’s disappearance. According to Botswana penal code, the charges for seditious offenses are punishable by up to three years in prison. The seditious charges stemmed from the T-shirts that the team had created with the message “Bring Back Obakeng” imprinted on them.
On the last hearing of April 15, the state withdrew all its charges against Michelle and other members of the crew. While in police detention during March, police demanded the news team to reveal the passcode to their mobile phones. The news team gave the police all their passwords. Michelle and her crew received their devices after they were released but authorities kept two of their phones in form of evidence. Police threatened Michelle’s colleague to delete the Facebook page of their news outlet Moeladi Botlhoko News Boiler. But the police did not do so after the interference of their lawyer.
Michelle and her co-accused spoke to The Voice about their conviction to keep working on their investigation while looking for disappeared people without any fears.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the continuous harassment of Michelle and her colleagues by the state authorities. We demand that police stop this intimidation and do not charge journalists for criminal trespass for doing their job.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.