BEF and BOMAWU join calls for release of Zimbabwean journalist

Botswana Editors Forum (BEF) and Botswana Media and Allied Workers Union (BOMAWU) stand in solidarity with the arrested Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. On that score, BEF and BOMAWU join calls for the immediate release of Chin’ono. Chin’ono is a respected investigative journalist who has been exposing acts of corruption at the highest echelons of the Zimbabwean Government. He most recently exposed acts of corruption inside the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe. The situation in so far as it pertains to the practice of journalism has clearly been worsening in Zimbabwe.There was a lot of euphoria when President Emmerson Mnangagwa came in. Many had hoped he would repeal many of the repressive laws that had been put into place during the reign of the late Former President Robert Mugabe. That has not happened. And it now feels like it was all false dawn. BEF and BOMAWU note with concern the regression in freedom of the media among some member countries of SADC (Southern African Development Community.) BEF and BOMAWU would like to call on President Mokgweetsi Masisi of the Republic of Botswana who is next in line to becoming Chair of SADC to dispassionately look at issues of freedom of the media in the region and work at putting into place irreversible steps aimed at consolidating those freedoms.SADC has slowly degenerated into a club of Heads of State who always invariably rally to the defense and protection of one another every time human rights abuses happen. This has alienated SADC from ordinary people that the organisation was created to serve. Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested at his home in Harare on June 20th, 2020. Signed: Spencer Mogapi (Chairman / BEF) Phillimon Mmeso (President / BOMAWU)