HARARE - The Botswana government has responded to reports that it is hosting pirate radio stations broadcasting hate speech against President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF).
It referred to the reports as baseless and an attempt to divert attention away from the real political issues facing the country.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Phandu Skelemani, said the accusations that Botswana is using the American radio station, Voice of America, to spread hate propaganda against the Zimbabwean government is false because Botswana does not control the stations editorial content.
The VOA station in Botswana is just a relay station, which has absolutely no control on editorial content. Everything is done in Washington, said Skelemani in a report published in the Botswana media.
Skelemanis comments comes at the back of a series of scathing attacks in the state owned Herald newspaper in which the Zimbabwean government accused Botswana of hosting Studio 7, a specialist broadcasting station on Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean government also accused Madagascar of hosting Radio VOP which also broadcasts into Zimbabwe.
It argued that these broadcasts are spreading hate speech and threatens the existence of a ten-month old coalition government.
But VOAs Director of Africa Broadcasting, Gwen Dillard, said the accusations were completely inaccurate.
The government needs to open its tight regulations for independent and free media. If the government liberalised the media space, there wouldnt be any need for us, said Dillard.
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