20 Mar 2014

Minister of Defense, Justice and Security, Mr Dikgakgamatso Seretse has expressed concern at the way the media compromises national security by publishing sensitive information.

Addressing a press conference in Gaborone on Tuesday, March 18, Minister Seretse advised members of the media to always exercise caution when carrying sensitive information not meant for public consumption.

He said most of the media practitioners were born and bred in Botswana and should be sensitive in their reporting. Mr Seretse condemned malicious reporting and twisted truths published by some media houses.

He said such reports had many times dug a hole which compromised the security of the country. Using a allegory of an ominous cloud over a place, the minister said, like rain, problems caused by insensitive reporting would also affect journalists.

“And when this cloud falls, it would not leave the media practitioners out, but would fall on everyone”, he said. He said as much as media practitioners had duty to inform the public, they should know how to sieve information and take only what needed to be given to the public.

“The public has the right to know, but it is not everything that the public has to know”, he said. Minister Seretse said he was aware that the media was highly interested in his ministry owing to its role as the custodian of security in the country.

As and whenever it was necessary ministry personnel such as the police freely shared pertinent information with the media, but some media houses had abused that privilege.

He advised the media to get, from now henceforth whatever information they needed from the ministry’s public relations office. He called on the media to work cooperatively with his ministry for proper information dissemination to the public. ENDS