{"id":23137,"date":"2026-01-31T06:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T04:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/misa-botswana-condemns-rising-threats-to-media-freedom-political-interference\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:00","slug":"misa-botswana-condemns-rising-threats-to-media-freedom-political-interference","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/misa-botswana-condemns-rising-threats-to-media-freedom-political-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"MISA Botswana condemns rising threats to media freedom, political interference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The organisation, which advocates for freedom of expression and press independence across the region, says journalists in Botswana are increasingly facing public attacks, including accusations of spreading misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MISA Botswana Chairperson Thomas Nkhoma said some of the attacks are being amplified by individuals occupying senior public office, raising serious concerns about the erosion of democratic principles. \u201cSuch conduct is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy,\u201d Nkhoma said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the institute is particularly troubled by reports involving Radio Botswana broadcaster Letumile \u2018Lets\u2019 Montsosa, who was reportedly removed from the Masaasele morning programme after a tightly controlled broadcast focused on the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf confirmed, this constitutes a direct assault on editorial independence and represents political interference within public broadcasting,\u201d Nkhoma warned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MISA Botswana has urged authorities to respect constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and to ensure that journalists can carry out their work without intimidation, censorship or reprisals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20890,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23137","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana Chapter has condemned what it describes as emerging threats by state authorities aimed at undermining media freedom in the country. ","published_date":null,"news_description":"The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana Chapter has condemned what it describes as emerging threats by state authorities aimed at undermining media freedom in the country. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26202,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23137\/revisions\/26202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}