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CRIMINAL JUSTICE DISSERTATION Examining Media Portrayals of and
Approaches to Cyber-
crimes in Botswana
Student Name: Tshephaone Reasentse Student ID: 201104855
Supervisor: Miss. C. Behrens Course Code: CJS 421 Course Name:
Research Project Faculty: Social Sciences Department: Sociology
Programme: BA: Criminal Justice Studies
Research submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice Studies (Single
Major)
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In loving memory of my beloved grandmother who contributed so
much on my life, my personal and
professional growth, may her soul rest in peace!
Mrs. Emily Mosidi Bogatsu (1933-2015)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must first acknowledge my gratitude to Miss. Camden Behrens
whose guidance, supervision for this
dissertation is unrivalled, and also for her meticulous
attention to the details of this dissertation.
Credit is also due to other people who offered timeless support
and profoundly inspired me namely;
Prof. J. Kiggundu, Prof. K. Acheampong, Prof. D. Sebudubudu, Dr.
I.S. Malila, Dr. G. Faimau, Dr. D.
Mpabanga, Dr. R. Kumar, Dr. V.B. Lunga, Dr. Mooko, Dr. N.
Swartz, Dr. K. Setlhare, Mrs. M.K.
Gaborone, Mrs. K.T.O. Mashaka, Mr. T. Ntsabane, Mrs. E.
Alexander, Mr. P.B. Gunda, Mrs. R. Segokgo,
Mr. G.G. Makofi, Mrs. K. More, Mrs. V. Sekgwathe and lastly to
my colleagues, criminal justice
scholars class of 2015.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..1
1. INTRODUCTION.1
1.1. Importance of Research...2
1.2. Background to the Study..2
1.3. Statement of the problem..3
2. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES..4
2.1. Aim of the Study.4
2.2. Objectives of the Study.4
3. LITERATURE REVIEW.4
3.1. Review of relevant literature on prevalence of
cybercrimes.5
3.1.1. Worldwide.5
3.1.2. African Continent.6
3.1.3. Republic of Botswana7
3.2. Cybercrime Media Reporting7
3.2.1. Theoretical Frameworks.8
3.2.2. United States of America8
3.2.3. Republic of Botswana...8
3.3. Legal Situation of Cybercrime (intra and inter
jurisdictional measures).10
3.3.1. Republic of Botswana.10
3.3.2. Republic of South Africa11
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..12
4.1. Research Design..12
4.2. Sample and Sampling Method..13
4.3. Data Collection.13
4.4. Data Display and Analysis.14
5. LIMITATION(S) OF THE STUDY.14
6. ETHICAL CONCERNS...15
7. DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION.15
7.1. Daily News Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)15
7.2. Sunday Standard Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)..16
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7.3. The Voice Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)..17
7.4. The Mmegi Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)..18
7.5. The Midweek Sun Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)19
7.6. Online Botswana Guardian Newspaper (From 2008-2015)19
7.7. Botswana Gazette Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)..20
7.8. Echo Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)..20
8. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS...21
9. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION(S).25
10. PLAGIARISM DECLARATION...26
11. REFERENCES27
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACRI African Cyber Risk Institute
BPS Botswana Police Service
CSI Crime Scene Investigation
CEMAC Central African Economic and Monetary Union
CoE Council of Europe
DCEC Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime
DISS Director of Intelligence and Security Services
DDoS Distributed Denial-of-Service
EAC East African Communities
ECOWAS East African Community of West African States
ECTA Electronic Communications Transactions Act
EU European Union
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigations
ICT Information and Computing Technology
INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization
MISA Media Institute of Southern Africa
MLA Mutual Legal Assistance
PC Personal Computer
PROATIA Promotion of Access to Information Act
RICPCTIA Regulation of Interception of Communications and
Provision of
Communication Related Information Act
RSA Republic of South Africa
SADC Southern African Development Community
SSA Sub Sahara Africa
USA United States of America
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ABSTRACT
This dissertation examines the media representations of and
approaches to cybercrimes specifically
in Botswana. In a bid to examine and establish such media
representations of cybercrime, data was
collected from seven (7) Botswana online newspapers namely;
Daily News, The Echo, Botswana
Guardian, Sunday Standard, The Voice, The Midweek Sun and Mmegi.
The argument of this paper is
that cybercrimes in general are underreported by the media
despite the economic and other negative
consequences that results from these crimes. In addition, there
are more potential victims of
cybercrimes in Botswana therefore cybercrime education is
paramount to prevent multiple
victimization of cybercrimes and policing of cybercrimes.
Moreover the media often reports and
narrates the outcomes of cybercrime court cases focusing more on
the offender thus neglecting the
victims of cybercrimes. Lastly the commonly reported types of
cybercrimes are, cyber fraud and card
cloning.
Key Words: Cybercrimes, Media representations
1. INTRODUCTION
Cybercrime in and of itself is of great concern globally, unlike
more traditional forms of
communication, the Internet allows users to communicate with
many people, cheaply and easily. The
estimated 1.6 billion people on the Internet, approximately 24
per cent of the worlds population,
provide an unprecedented pool of potential offenders and victims
of cybercrimes (Clough, 2007),
moreover the expanding wave of Internet connectivity and digital
technologies bring us a lot of
convenience, at the same time they also offer criminals more
chance to commit crime (Sekgathe &
Talib, 2011). According to Aas, (2007) cybercrime is an elusive
phenomenon and can cover a number
of acts and activities1. Wall (2001: 2 in Aas, 2007) points out
that the term has no specific referent in
law2 and is a concept mainly invented by the media but consensus
is that crimes committed on the
cyberspace are cybercrimes hereinafter defined as, the use of a
computer as an instrument to
1 These can either be the target of the offence, such as when
the offender steals information from or cause damage to the
computer system, or a tool by which offence is facilitated, such as
fraud or the distribution of child pornography (Gooch &
Williams, 2007). 2You will seldom find a clear and fixed definition
of cybercrime in the interpretation section of a cybercrime statute
but the overall aim of that statute (International, Regional or
National) will seek to address and/or combat cybercrimes vide
Council of Europe (COE) Convention on Cybercrime, (2001) and
Botswana Cybercrime and Computer related Crimes Act of 2007.
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further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in
child pornography and intellectual
property, stealing identities, or violating privacy (Cybercrime,
2015).
1.1. Importance of Research
What is vital to discuss is that the media on the other hand
plays a pivotal role in reporting incidence
of crimes in general because individuals generally cannot get
sufficient information on their own to
make informed decisions on public matters, so they rely on media
to provide information therefore,
free media helps ensure that the democratic principle of
publicity sometimes referred to as
transparency is satisfied (Media Freedom, 2015). The media also
serves as a watchdog by scrutinising
and criticising public officials over the way they manage public
affairs (Balule, 2008) and also
addresses issues of national security, cybercrimes being one of
them. Therefore with all that said the
purpose of this study was to examine the media reports in
relation to the incidence or occurrence of
cybercrimes and establish whether such reports truly reflects
the gravity and extent of cybercrimes
in Botswana. Furthermore, various online newspapers both state
and private print media were
explored and perused to decipher the portrayals of cybercrimes
in general. However, it is worth
mentioning that researcher found very little relevant studies or
research done in Botswana on media
representations of cybercrimes. This shows that there is a gap
in the information on cybercrime and
media reporting in Botswana, and this makes the study more
pertinent.
1.2. Background to Study
It is evident that the use of modern technology and the
cyberspace has not only improved the lives
of individuals in a civil society but also to administration of
governments and government service
delivery in most states. The proliferation of digital
technology, and the convergence of computing
and communication devices, has transformed the way in which we
socialise and do business. While
overwhelmingly positive, there has also been a dark side to
these developments. Proving the maxim
that crime follows opportunity, virtually every advance has been
accompanied by a corresponding
niche to be exploited for criminal purposes. Our increasing
dependence on computers and digital
networks makes the technology itself a tempting target; either
for the gaining of information or as a
means of causing disruption and damage. (Clough, 2007). In
addition, according to Sekgwathe, (2014)
she is of the view that the exact impact of cybercrime is often
underestimated or unknown hence the
disastrous economic impact of these attacks are not well
established, this phenomena however
prompted the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations
(FBI) to make e-security or cyber
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security the third unit of its mission because of the unknown
disastrous economic impacts of
cybercrime as mentioned above.
Furthermore with the advent of cybercrimes which are regarded a
global concern as these crimes do
no occur within country boundaries. In order to address this
cross-border crimes, countries had had
to come together to device ways in which cybercrime can be
prevented. Amongst others, the 2001
European Convention on Cybercrime also known as the Budapest
Convention. The Convention on
cybercrime3 was set up to ensure that countries participate and
adopt appropriate legislation hence
harmonization of domestic laws, this Convention however
represents a comprehensive international
response to the problems of cybercrime4. The need for
harmonization of laws came as a result of the
principle in international law that Countries are understandably
protective of their right to impose
their own standards under their domestic criminal law, countries
may even see opportunities to
establish themselves as data havens, providing maximum privacy
and minimal regulation of content
hosted there. For others, particularly in the developing world,
cybercrime may simply not be a priority
(Clough, 2007). This was confirmed by the Attorney General of
Botswana (Molokomme A. L., 2012)
in her address to Octopus Cybercrime Conference in France that
in Botswana, it was felt that we
had other more pressing challenges that need our attention,
resources and time, more than issues
which did not seem to affect the day-to-day lives of ordinary
citizens, such as cybercrime.
1.3. Statement of Problem
In the 2014 state of the Nation address by President S.K.I.
Khama stated that the ever changing
environment in the policing landscape presents new challenges
such as the growing
sophistication of violent, serious and intrusive, transnational,
organized and cybercrimes. Many
Batswana are also falling prey to online as well as more
conventional conmen (Khama, 2013).
This is corroborated by Colarik, (2006) that cybercriminals have
become skilled and been targeting
asserts to sell because cyberspace encompasses multinational
jurisdiction, cybercriminals circumvent
prosecution by operating in countries that have either weak or
non-existent computer crime law, or
lack the resources for strong enforcement.
3 The Convention on Cybercrime remains the most influential
international treaty dealing with breaches of law over the internet
or other information networks (Anonymous, Handbook of European data
Protection Law, 2014). 4 The Convention also provides for
procedural powers covering search of computer networks and
interception of communications in the context of fighting
cybercrimes.
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The media has shown has made their observations on this issue of
cybercrimes for example, online
media reports such as Sunday Standard claim that Botswana is a
global cybercrime hotspot5. From
this article in that paper it was stated that Botswana has been
identified as a potential cybercrime
hotspot which provides organized cybercrime with the ability and
the hosting capacity to attack
western countries. This emerged in a research project launched
by the International Cyber Security
Protection Alliance to identify how cyber-attacks are likely to
evolve over the next eight years. This
research however, has explored the way in which media reporting
of cybercrimes is framed, whether
such reports truly reflects the nature and extent of cybercrimes
in Botswana. Henceforth, various
online media reports were collected for examination.
2. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
2.1. Aim of the Study
The aim of this research is examining the media representations
of cybercrimes in Botswana.
2.2. Objectives of the Study
2.2.1. To assess the extent to which the media in Botswana
portrays incidents of cybercrimes
2.2.2. To examine the vulnerability of the users of the
cyberspace as reported by the media
2.2.3. To find out the impact of media reporting of cybercrimes
on victims and offenders of
cybercrimes
2.2.4. To find out the type of cybercrimes that are reported by
the media in Botswana
2.2.5. To establish a nexus between cybercrime reporting
patterns and the individual journalists
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, the review of literature has been categorized
into three (3) parts viz; i) Prevalence of
Cybercrime worldwide, ii) Cybercrime Media Reporting and lastly
iii) Legal Situation of Cybercrimes
(Inter and Intra-jurisdictional measures). These categories
provides an overview on the complexities
of cybercrime and media reporting thereof. As indicated above in
the rationale of the research, in
the searching for relevant research on the topic of media
representation of cybercrimes, the
researcher could find very little relevant studies or research
done in Botswana. Therefore, I relied on
studies conducted in some countries in Africa, Europe and North
America.
5 (Anonymous, Sunday Standard Online Edition. Botswana is Global
Cybercrime Hotspot, 2012)
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3.1. Review of relevant literature on prevalence of
cybercrimes
3.1.1. Worldwide
Studies conducted on the subject cybercrime shows that
cybercrime is a growing concern not only
nationally but also internationally. On a global scale, research
(The 2013 Norton Cybercrime report)
indicates that 64% of males, compared to 58% of females, are
more likely to become victims of
cybercrime6. It also suggests that the highest numbers of
cybercrime victims are found in Russia
(85%), China (77%) and South Africa (73%)7. Innocent populace
are falling prey to cheats, threats,
money and identity losses, sexual abuses etc. especially on the
cyberspace, and most of the victims
around the World especially in developing countries, are still
ignorant of their rights on the Web and
the methodology to bring a culprit to book (Sekgathe &
Talib, 2011). Moreover, the 2013 Norton
Cybercrime report suggests that 50% of online adults have been
victims of cybercrime and/or
negative situations in 12 month period and 41% of online adults
have become victim of malware,
viruses, hacking, scams, fraud and theft. Only 3 in 10 adults
(31%) however, thought they were more
likely to become a victim of online, rather than offline crime.
The 2011 Norton report also indicated
a 3% rise in overall cybercrime since the 2010 survey and
reported the most common (and most
preventable) type of cybercrime remained computer viruses or
malware8. In addition, the CSI/FBI
Computer Crime and Security Survey in (Clough, 2007) shows that
in previous years the most common
category of attack was virus, worm or Trojan infections (64% in
2005). In 2006 the survey split this
category into two new categories, virus or worm infections and
Trojan or rootkit infections: forty-
five per cent of respondents experienced virus or worm
infections, 21% experienced Trojan or rootkit
infections while 18% experienced both. The relatively high level
of attack by Trojans and rootkits
reflects a broader trend of such malware being utilised for ID
theft and the creation of botnets9.
6 The report further showed that almost of the tablet and
smartphone consumers leave security behind i.e. they do not use
basic precautions such as passwords, security software or back up
files for their mobile device. 7 The report (op cit) shows that
Consumers security IQ is high on Personal Computers (PC), and low
on mobile phones because 90% of PC users delete suspicious emails
from people they dont know unlike 6% of mobile users. 72% of PC
users have at least a basic free antivirus solution unlike 33% of
mobile users and lastly, 78% of PC users avoid storing sensitive
files online as dissimilar to 48% of mobile users. 8 A generic term
(short for malicious software) covering a range of software
programs and types of programs designed to attack, degrade or
prevent the intended use of a computer network e.g. viruses, worms
and/or Trojans (Gooch & Williams, 2007). 9 A program which
infects a targeted computer and allows it to be controlled
remotely.
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A survey released in 2013 by the Ditch the Label anti-bullying
charity sampled 10,008 young people
aged between 13-22 years old. Out of the 10,008, 67% were from
the United Kingdom, 17% from the
United States of America, 12% from Australia and 4% from other
countries. The report identified
different levels of cyberbullying10 across different social
networks, showing that: i) 7 out of 10 young
people have been victims of cyber-bullying, and ii) 37 % have
experienced cyber-bullying on a highly
frequent basis and 20 % have experienced extreme cyber-bullying
on a daily basis. The findings also
showed that the most common social networks for cyberbullying
were Facebook (54%), Twitter (28%)
and Ask FM (26%).
3.1.2. African Continent
In a research conducted by Akuta, Ong'oa, & Jones, (2011)
showed that eventhough the continent of
Africa was regarded as backwards has been able to get a leap
into the world of ICT. According to
Internet World Stats, Internet use in Africa had reached 2.3 per
cent of the total worldwide use by
December 2007. Africas internet usage from 2000 to 2007
increased by 423.9 per cent compared to
180.3 per cent for the rest of the world. This high number of
users in Africa has made the Internet a
popular means of communication as well as opening new
opportunities for online enterprise, and
likewise, a similar increase in cyber-criminal activities
requiring an increased effort across the region
to strengthen the information infrastructure, educate users in
security awareness, and develop
cybercrime regulations (Olowu, 2009). The rapid rate of
diffussion of cybercrime in Africa has been a
call for concern. Due to the lack of security awareness
programmes or specialised training for the law
enforcement agencies, many online users are becoming victims of
cyber-crime attacks and the
incidence of successful attacks is increasing with impunity.
This concern even gets more sickening
when literature indicate that, out of the top ten countries in
the world with the high level of
cybercrime prevalence, Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) is host to four
of these countries (Nigeria11,
Cameroon12, Ghana and South Africa). In addition notwithstanding
the aforesaid, cybercrimes by
10 the act of threatening, teasing, ridiculing and embarrassing
another person through technological mediums such as social
networking websites (for example, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace),
texting and Instant Messaging (Merwe, 2015) 11 Nigeria is regarded
as the hub or safe haven for cybercrime in the world and has been
at the spot light from the international community for its
involvement in cybercrime. It is ranked the 3rd in the world behind
the USA and Britain and the 1st within the African continent. 12 A
2010 report by the McAfee cybersecurity firmly cites Cameroon as
the worlds riskiest destination for internet surfers with more than
a third (36.7%) of websites hosted in Cameroon being suspicious
(McAfee, 2009)
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their nature are borderless and as a result of this, the SSA
countries tried to come up with coordinated
efforts within their regions, in Africa and the wold in general.
These efforts have seen Africa Regional
blocks like EAC13, CEMAC, ECOWAS14 and SADC work towards
harmonizing, their laws, holding
working sessions to train law enforcement officers and
partnering with other international
organizations and companies to fight cybercrimes which has been
a success.
3.1.3. Republic of Botswana
In a study by Sekgwathe, (2014) Botswana recorded and reported
incident of cybercrimes in the year
2000. In this particular incident, a Bank of Botswana employee
electronically transferred over
P2million to an account outside the country from the Bank that
he was an employee in [Anonymous,
Botswana Daily News]. This was the first incident of its kind
and the country back then did not have
any cyber-crime Act or Information and Communications Act
subsequently, the country was left with
no alternative but to use the penal code15 [Fombard CM and
Quansah EK; Penal Code Act of Botswana
in Sekgwathe, 2014] despite the fact that technology aided the
accused to commit fraud16. This
prompted the country to come up with a cyber-crime bill, which
ultimately became the cyber-crime
Act of 2007.
3.2. Cybercrime Media Reporting:
From the outset mass media representations of crime, deviance,
and disorder have been a perennial
cause of concern and research (Anonymous, Media Representations
and Responsibilities, n.d.) shows
that in general people overestimate the level of crime in their
community, and media representations
of crime are thought to be partly responsible for this; The
report further shows that there is
widespread concern that the level and type of crime reported in
the media presents a distorted view
of the real level of crime in the community; and that this
misrepresentation may lead to prejudice
towards certain groups, stereotyping of certain groups, people
becoming isolated from their
community through fear of crime, and the imposition of draconian
measures to fight crime. The
13 East African Community Task Force on Cyber Laws 14 Economic
Community of West African States 15CAP: 08:01 16 Fraud in the
literal sense, not cyber-fraud as it should have been the case
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disciplinary role of the media stories about crime, reproducing
as well as representing order, is
supported more clearly by research (Maguire, Morgan, &
Reiner, 2012). This is partly because media
representations exaggerate the threat of fear of crime and in
the main promote policing and
punishment as the antidote. Similarly Pollark, (2007) had the
same findings which indicate that news
reporting follows the law of opposites, the characteristics of
crime, criminals, and victims
represented in the media are in most respects the polar opposite
of the pattern suggested by official
crime statistics. The problem with the above reports is that it
did not examine cybercrimes but
instead overgeneralized it as a crime like most traditional
forms of crimes despite its uniqueness. In
addition (Reiner,n.d) argues that news reporting of crime and,
further, of the particular types of crime
on which journalists disproportionately focus, is selective and
unrepresentative. News reporting of
crime victims is equally so.
3.2.1. Theoretical Frameworks
In most qualitative researches such this one I concur with
Given, (2008) argument that the term
theoretical frameworks does not have a clear and consistent
definition, but for the purpose of this
research it shall be defined as any empirical or quasi-empirical
theory17 of social and/or psychological
processes, at a variety of levels (e.g., grand, mid-range, and
explanatory), that can be applied to the
understanding of phenomena such as examining the causes of media
representations of cybercrimes.
One theoretical concept that is utilized by almost all crime
news studies, regardless of other
methodological and theoretical differences, is that of
newsworthiness as argued by (Maguire,
Morgan, & Reiner, 2012). News content is generated and
filtered primarily through reporters sense
of newsworthiness, what makes a good story that their audience
wants to know about. On the issue
of cybercrime media reporting I shall look at the United States
of America (USA) and Botswana to
establish the discrepancies and similarities.
3.2.2. United States America (USA)
Researchers such as (Clough, 2007) argued that media reporting
of cybercrime may present a
distorted picture. As with other forms of crime, it is tempting
to focus on the novel and/or the
17 A theory, in both every day and scientific use, is normally
used to denote a model or set of concepts and propositions that
pertains to some actual phenomena; a theory can provide
understanding of these phenomena or form the basis for action with
respect to them. Qualitative researcher do no usually design their
research primarily to apply or test formally constructed theories
about the topics and settings they study. Instead they normally
seek to better understand these topics and settings through their
investigations and to inductively develop theory about these from
their data. (Given, 2008).
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sensational rather than the mainstream, and stories of computer
misuse may be uncritically accepted
and repeated by the journalists. A case in point is that of Aron
Caffrey an 18-year-old hacker who was
charged with a target cybercrime18, the defense he pioneered
(Trojan horse defence) was that
someone hacked into his computer Turkish hackers and tried to
frame him, claiming they regularly
seized control of chat rooms and other Internet sites. He said
his computer operating system allowed
remote access and control and therefore was vulnerable to Trojan
horse programs and this defence
has been used successfully in cases in which the use of a
computer was incidental to the crime.
Brenner, (2010) argued in his observation that If the Trojan
horse defense is routinely used to win
acquittals in U.S. cybercrime cases, that is not being reported
by the media. Because the media tends
to report the outcome of cases that go to trial, the lack of
media reports of Caffrey-style victories
suggests his success may be something of an aberration.
3.2.3. Republic of Botswana
There is very little research conducted in Botswana on the topic
Media Representations of
Cybercrime. According to a study conducted by Ernest and Young
in Sekgwathe and Talib, (2014) their
findings were that the exact impact of e-crime is often
underestimated or unknown hence the
disastrous economic impact of these attacks is not well
established. When discussing cybercrime
media reporting in Botswana, it important to highlight the state
of press freedom which may be a
factor in cybercrime media reporting and in a report from
Botswana Freedom House, (2015) it shows
that while press freedom is not explicitly guaranteed in the
constitution of Botswana, clauses
safeguarding freedoms of speech and expression undergird
extensive legal protections for media
outlets, and the government generally respects these freedoms in
practice. However, the
constitution contains a number of provisions concerning national
security, public order and public
morality that can be used to limit media freedom. Moreover
cybercrimes are national security issues
so media reporting will be relatively low as opposed to other
traditional forms of crimes.
A typical case in point to illustrate the nature of media
freedom in Botswana is the recent case that
was published online in the MISA website19 titled Botswana
Gazette journalists, Lawyer arrested
over story wherein, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic
Crime (DCEC) officers raided the
18 They include hacking, malware, and Distributed Denial of
Service (DDoS) attacks 19 (Anonymous, Botswana Gazette Journalist,
Lawyer arrested over Story, 2015)
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Botswana Gazette offices shortly after 1400Hrs on May 6, 2015
with a warrant to confiscate
computers and documents of the organization. The following day
(May 7), DCEC officers returned
and placed under arrest Shike Olsen, acting Editor Lawrence
Seretse and the journalist Innocent
Selatlhwa. It later became evident that the arrests were related
to an article published by the Gazette,
titled DCEC foils Chitube, Reatile and Moumakwas alleged P150
million oil deals. The article linked
a deported Zambian national, Jerry Chitube, to illegal
activities for Botswanas intelligence arm, the
Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DISS), and
the ruling Botswana Democratic Party.
This was a concern for MISA Botswana because three Gazette
employees were arrested and detained
for almost five (5) hours inside the holding cells of the DCEC.
Their lawyer, Joao Salbany was also
arrested and detained, but at a different location at
Mogoditshane Police Station (Anonymous,
Botswana Gazette Journalist, Lawyer arrested over Story,
2015).
3.3. Legal Situation of Cyber-crimes (Intra-jurisdictional and
Inter-jurisdictional
Measures)
3.3.1. Republic of Botswana
According to Clough, (2007) criminal law is traditionally
regarded as local in nature, being restricted
to the territorial jurisdiction in which the offence occurred.
Modern computer networks have
challenged that paradigm. As individuals may now communicate
overseas as easily as next door,
offenders may be present, and cause harm, anywhere there is an
Internet connection. To bring these
statements into context, the Botswana Penal Code of 2005 does
not succinctly acknowledge or
capture cybercrimes as offences and has constraints but the
Extradition Act addresses issues of
jurisdiction amongst the states provided such states had entered
into some extradition treaty with
Botswana. The law enforcement officers are faced with enormous
challenges when dealing with
cybercrimes and this was seen in the Voice newspaper claim that
Modipane Sex Spree turns into
Rape20, which was later amended in the charge sheet to
electronic traffic in pornographic or obscene
material21
The former prosecutor Mr. Ngakaagae, (2010) who was from time to
time prosecuting cybercrimes,
explained that whereas there is a framework for mutual legal
assistance (MLA) between Botswana
and the countries involved in the fight against cybercrimes,
there are no clear lines of communication
20 (Anonymous, Modipane Sex Spree turns into Rape, 2015) 21
Section 16 of Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act, CAP:
08:06
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11 | P a g e
or service level agreements to make cooperation smooth and
effective. This legal assistance (MLA)
which form an important part of the fight against cybercrime,
are handled by the Directorate of Public
Prosecutions. Notwithstanding that, Botswana has a generous
mutual legal assistance legislation
which makes possible, assistance to any country with which
Botswana has some reciprocal form of
MLA arrangement. Ngakaagae, (2010) asserted that no agreement
exists with the European Union
(EU), and Botswana has not acceded to the EU convention on
cybercrime. Botswana cybercrime
legislation however is based on the EU model and borrows heavily
(almost word for word) from the
same. With the exception of the absence of a provision
specifically enabling real time interception of
traffic data there would appear to be little, if any, legal
impediment to requirements for accession,
but in attempting to address the issues relating to the current
cybercrime and computed related
crimes act, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence,
Justice and Security, Segakweng
Tsiane outlined the following strategies put in place by
Botswana Government in dealing with cyber
security such as the drafting and reviewing of laws such as
Counter terrorism Bill, Proceeds and
Instruments of serious Crime Bill, Human trafficking Bill,
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act and so
on (Anonymous, Botswana workshop advances SADC Cyber Security
reforms, 2015).
Ngakaagae, (2010) further alludes to the fact that although it
is desirable that Botswana accede to
the EU Convention, true consensus is unachievable. Countries are
understandably protective of their
right to impose their own standards under their domestic
criminal law, particularly when we consider
the myriad of interests that come into play when seeking to
regulate the Internet and other new
technologies. What may be achieved, however, is a broad
consensus which can then be built upon in
the future for those areas where there is less international
agreement. This is the approach adopted
by the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, the first,
and so far the only, multinational
instrument to address issues of cybercrime. (Clough, 2007)
3.3.2. Republic of South Africa (RSA)
It is worth mentioning that South Africa has been ahead of
Botswana especially on issues of
legislation in place that deals primarily with cybercrimes.
Supplementary this was shown by Snail S.,
(2009) who argued that prior to the enactment of the Electronic
Communications Transactions Act
(ECTA), Act 25 of 2002, the common and statutory law at that
time could be extended as widely as
possible so as to cater for the arrest and successful
prosecution of online offenders in South Africa.
One can easily apply the common law crimes of defamation,
indecency (Online child pornography,
decimation of child porn) among other things. There are also
other statutes viz; The Interception and
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Monitoring Act, the Regulation of Interception of Communications
and Provision of Communication
Related Information Act (RICPCRIA) Act 70 of 2002, the
Electronic Communications and Transactions
Act (ECTA) and the Promotion of Access to Information Act
(PROATIA) all of which generally prohibits
the unlawful interception or monitoring of any data message
which could be used in prosecuting
hacker and crackers.
The ECTA in its entirety comprehensively deals with Cyber-crimes
in Chapter XIII and has now created
legal certainty as to what may and not constitute Cyber-crime.
(Snail S. , 2009) further contends that
it is refreshing to note that the South African legislature did
not make cybercrimes an abstract
concept of legal writing and logically created crimes that do
not only cover crime after the advent of
the computer but also before the advent of the computer and that
the mere attempt of these crimes
also constitutes a criminal transgression. The crimes as stated
in the ECTA are however not exempt
from scrutiny. The enforceability of the ECTA provisions are
still to be tested in South African courts
and some legal practitioners and adjudicators (magistrates and
judges) need to be educated and
mentally conditioned to embrace the cybercrime provisions of the
ECTA. In the case of R v Douvenga
(District Court of the Northern Transvaal, Pretoria, case no
111/150/2003, 19 August 2003,
unreported) the accused, on or about 21 January 2003, in or near
Pretoria and in the district of the
Northern Transvaal, intentionally and without permission to do
so, gained entry to data which she
knew was contained in confidential databases and/or contravened
the provision by sending this data
per e-mail to her fiance (as he then was) to hou (keep). The
accused was found guilty of
contravening section 86(1) of the ECT Act and sentenced to a R1
000 fine or imprisonment for a
period of three months. (S L. Geredal (2006) 282). Hacking has
now been entrenched in our law in
s86 (1) of the ECTA which makes any unlawful access and
interception of data a criminal offence. The
above case illustrate the effectiveness of the South African
Cyber law.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1. Research Design
The research in its entirety was a qualitative research and
exploratory22 because the researcher
wanted get an insight on cybercrime media reporting and on this
basis, attempt to explain why the
media represents cybercrimes the way they do. Given the short
time for this research (3 months),
22 Research in which social phenomena are investigated without
priory expectations, in order to develop explanations of them
(Bachman & Schutt, 2014)
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13 | P a g e
the research was cross-sectional23 that is, data was collected
there and then within a period of a
semester (March, April and May 2015). In addition, this was a
case study24 in the Botswana context
and relied heavily on secondary data analysis hence most
online-newspapers were analysed both
public and private media. The research entailed an extended
literature review to supplement the
findings.
4.2. Sample and Sampling Method
Since the research was conducted within a short period of time,
for the purpose of Botswana, It was
imperative to provide an overview of the Botswana media by
categorizing it into two namely; i) Print
media (Botswana Gazette, Botswana Guardian, Botswana Daily News,
Midweek Sun, Sunday
Standard, The Voice and Ngami Times) ii) Broadcast Media
(Television: Botswana Television-BTV
which is state owned, Radio: Gabz FM, Radio Botswana 1, Radio
Botswana 2, Yarona FM and Duma
FM) (Republic of Botswana-Government portal, 2014). In addition,
Radio Botswana and Botswana
Television falls under the department of Broadcasting Services.
So my sample was based on online
print media thus simple random sampling25 because there are very
few online newspapers to deal
with so, I used (7) private newspapers26 and one (1) public
newspaper. The reason being that I had
to be as objective as possible because private media has been
framed to be anti-government and
state media pro-government, so I had to consider them both
despite the fact that there is only one
state online newspaper.
4.3. Data Collection
As elucidated in the research design above, the research was
qualitative therefore the data collection
instrument employed was the document study or analysis of
documents27. The newspaper articles
which were perused online from their respective websites were;
the Botswana Daily News, Botswana
23 A study in which data are collected at only one point in
time. 24 A research approach in which one or more social phenomenon
are studied in depth and the advantages are; case studies have been
the major source of theoretical innovation and also case studies
has an affinity towards descriptive goals (Given, 2008). 25 A
method of sampling in which every sample element (e.g. online
newspaper) is selected only on the basis of chance, through random
process. 26 Botswana Gazette, Botswana Guardian, Botswana Daily
News, Sunday Standard, Mmegi, MidWeek Sun, Echo and The Voice 27
The standard approach to the analysis of documents focuses
primarily on what is contained within them. In this frame,
documents which in my case were online newspapers are viewed as
conduits of communication between a writer and a reader-conduits
that contain meaningful messages. The most straightforward approach
to document content involves the adoption of content analysis which
allowed me to concentrate on word and phrase counts as well as
numerical measures of textual expression (Given, 2008).
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14 | P a g e
Gazette, Botswana Guardian, Mmegi, The Voice, The Echo and
Sunday standard online newspapers,
reported online stories from 2008 to 2015 the reason being that
the cyber laws were assented by the
cabinet on 2007 so the idea was to see whether the media view
this law as a deterrent measure of
these cybercrimes and how this law is administered by courts
both on victims and offenders of
cybercrimes.
4.4. Data Display and Analysis
In my blueprint of data analysis, the intention was to analyse
the data using the thematic coding and
analysis28 where data collected would be categorised into
themes29 all of which describes the various
dimensions of the fact in issue, how the media in Botswana
frames cybercrimes so as to ascertain the
trends and patterns of words used, their frequency, their
relationships, the structures and discourses
of communication. In addition as stated from above, the research
was a case study and the data
collection method was content analysis which is the intellectual
process of categorizing qualitative
textual data into clusters of similar entities, or conceptual
categories, to identify consistent patterns
and relationships between variables or themes. Lastly, the
styles of data display adopted was mixed
methods that is graphic summaries30 and quotes31.
5. LIMITATION(S) OF THE STUDY
This was a desktop research and time factor was the main
challenge of this research because three
(3) months was not enough to conduct a well ground-breaking and
extensive research on cybercrime
and media reporting which appears on the face of it to be the
first of its kind in Botswana as indicated
above in the literature review.
28 Thematic analysis is a data reduction and analysis strategy
by which qualitative data are segmented, categorized, summarized
and reconstructed in a way that captures the important concepts
within the data set (Given, 2008). 29 An idea that recurs in or
pervades a work of art or literature, themes typically are derived
from codes generated by a qualitative researcher (Given, 2008). 30
These include tables, bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs,
matrices, hierarchical relationship indicators and flow charts. All
of these provide a quick summary of considerable chunks of data,
producing an overall snapshot which can then be more fully
explained and illustrated with other forms of qualitative display
such as quotes or case studies (Grbich, 2007). 31 This usually
involves the display of key quotes. When more than one quote is
displayed, the purpose is to demonstrate the variety in responses
or to emphasise the concordance of a range of views on a particular
issue. In both cases, the display acts as a starter for more
detailed explanations or discussions (Grbich, 2007).
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6. ETHICAL CONCERNS
For this section even though it is important for every academic
research, in my case it does not apply
in the sense that the research relied heavily on secondary data
and content analysis unlike if it
involved dealing with human beings directly.
7. DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
As highlighted above, thematic coding was used to analyse the
following data. Below is a coding
frame presented in tables showing the hierarchy of codes
extracted from various newspapers that I
have perused.
7.1. Daily News Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER
ARTICLE(S)
CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Ballout goes to Jail Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
Anti-cybercrime
workshops
important
Education on
Cybercrime
Vulnerability of the
users of the
cyberspace
Victim
representation
Cybercrimes
extraditable-
Minister
Cybercrime
Legislation
Types of cybercrimes Reporting patterns
and journalists
The coding frame above illustrates how Botswana Daily newspaper
which is a state owned newspaper
displays cybercrimes and their occurrence. I must state that
from their database within a period of 7
years (2008-2015) only eight (8) articles were retrieved which
discussed specifically cybercrimes. This
clearly shows that cybercrimes are underreported as they should.
What can be deciphered from the
above table is that the reporter(s) of the daily newspapers tend
to focus more on the offenders and
thats what I learned from four (4) Articles which focused more
on Joseph Ballout who was facing
cybercrime offenses. On the victim aspect, only one article
discussed the vulnerability of the users of
the cyberspace because it stressed on the essence of
cybersecurity, this was indicted when it was
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16 | P a g e
reported that Ms. Segakweng the permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Defence, Justice and
Security contended for the need for public education on
cybercrime32. The problem with the 8 articles
I read was that daily news journalists tend to omit other
important information which would
otherwise give credit to the story such as the case of Ballout
where they did not report the victims
position his/her whereabouts and so on. In short the state media
does not report incidence of
cybercrimes more often than other crimes in general.
7.2. Sunday Standard Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Cybercrime suspects
remanded
Cybercrime
court case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
Police commissioner
issues alert on cybercrime
Cybercrime
policing
Reporting patterns of
cybercrime
Offender
representation
Cybercrimes and
cybercriminals
Cybercrime
specific
reporting
Types of cybercrimes Extent of
Cybercrimes
AON survey shows
cybercrime, terror risk are
under-rated by captive
directors
Cybercrime
specific
reporting
Vulnerability of Users
of the cyberspace
Victim
representation
Botswana is global
cybercrime hotspot
Cybercrime
specific
reporting
Vulnerability of Users
of the cyberspace
Victim
representation
On the face of it, what can be deduced from the above Sunday
standard coding frame is that,
cybercrime representation is fairly good as opposed to the Daily
News. From the sixteen (16) articles
I perused where detailed and succinct portraying both offenders
and potential victims equally. I must
also state that some reporters of Sunday standard where
contradictory in their stories in the sense
that a there would be a mismatch in the title of the story an
example is an article titled No Laws in
32 (BOPA, Anti-cybercrime workshops important, 2014)
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Botswana to combat Internet crime published on the 9th February
2012 by Calistus Bosaletswe33,
when you read the contends you will discover that there are laws
that attempts to address internet
crimes as he put it, the issue was the difficulty faced by law
enforcement to extradite offenders who
committed cybercrime outside Botswana and also to indicate that
Cybercrime and Computer Related
crime Act was enacted in 2007 so this results in misinformation.
The problem I observed which was
similar to online Daily Newspaper was that the reporting
patterns of journalist are more or less the
same in the sense that when they report cybercrimes they either
focus solely on the offender or
victim not both which is ideal so that a reader may be able to
conclude that the victim of cybercrime
incurred financial losses and the type of assistance he sought.
What I can say is that Sunday Standard
reports incidence of cybercrimes in a satisfactory manner
because from their stories it clearly shows
various business companies in the private sector and some in the
public sector are vulnerable and
likely to become victims of cybercrime should it happen.
7.3. The Voice Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Dan Kenosi denied
Bai
Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
An obvious assumption looking at the above coding frame would be
under-reporting of cybercrimes
in general by the voice newspaper. It barely reports cybercrime
and I must indicate that I managed
to retrieve seven (7) articles all of which had the key word
cybercrime. Moreover what I learnt from
this newspaper was that it sensationalise issues before they are
verified and title of the stories and
the contents of the story are almost invariably haphazard and
inconsistent particularly on
cybercrimes. The way this newspaper reports stories is more of
exaggeration which has the effect of
defaming victims of cybercrimes in general. Out of the 7
articles, only one reports on the offender
who was alleged to have committed a cybercrime offence
hereinafter Dan Kenosi who was denied
bail34. The type of cybercrime that was reported is distribution
of pornographic materials online.
33 (Bosaletswe, 2012) 34 (Matota, 2015)
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7.4. The Mmegi Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Cybercrime law gets
teeth
Cybercrime
legislation
Types of cybercrimes Extent of cybercrimes
Facebook, SMS bill
passes
Cybercrime
prosecutorial
procedure
Types of cybercrime Extent of cybercrimes
Cybercrime cases on
the increase
Cybercrime specific
reporting
Types of cybercrime Extent of cybercrimes
cybercrime poses
challenge to the
police
Cybercrime policing Types of cybercrimes Extent of
cybercrimes
MISA Press release
on Daniel Kenosi
Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
From the above mmegi coding frame, of the ten (10) articles I
perused so far the conclusion would
be that the focus is more on addressing the extent of
cybercrime, but there is no specific reference
to victims of cybercrimes at all rather only offenders are
included in the story. Mmegi newspaper
acknowledges that cybercrime cases are on the increase and by
far the types of cybercrimes reported
involve fraudulent commercial or monetary transactions; and card
cloning where skimming devices
are placed in ATM machines to duplicate information from a
victims debit card. In fraudulent online
shopping, victims are lured into fully paying for non-existent
goods before delivery35.
35 (Anonymous, Cyber crime poses challenge to police, 2015)
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7.5. The Midweek Sun Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Modipane trio
arrested on
electronic trafficking
in pornographic
material
Cybercrime reporting Incidence of
cybercrimes
Reporting patterns
and journalists
Guilty verdict test
Botswanas
cybercrime law
Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Cybercrime penalty
Convicted
cybercriminal
thrown in jail
Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
The above Midweek Sun coding frame shows that cybercrime media
reporting is poor because I was
able to retrieve only three (3) articles from the database. The
problem with these articles was,
cybercrimes were not discussed in detail instead there was
constant reference to the Cybercrime and
Computer Related crimes Act. Just like the voice newspaper the,
the stories portrays only offenders
of cybercrimes but very little reference is done to the victims
thereof.
7.6. Online Botswana Guardian Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
DCEC investigates
digital migration
Cybercrime reporting Incidence of
cybercrime
Extent of cybercrimes
What I can deduce from the four (4) articles that I have read
together with interpreting the above
coding frame, firstly Botswana guardian newspaper reports
incidence of cybercrime piecemeal and
the way it reports its stories would persuade a reader that
cybercrimes are not of public concern.
Secondly, it does not establish both the victims and offenders
of cybercrimes but will give a vague
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reference and only financial consequences of such crimes because
in one of the articles was claimed
that Botswanas digital migration will cost the government 1
billion pula (BWP)36.
7.7. Botswana Gazette Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Lack of cybercrime
legislation putting
you at risk
Cybercrime
Legislation
Vulnerability of Users
of the cyberspace
Victim protection
Botswana gazette has only one (1) article on cybercrimes in
their online data base up to date. This
also shows that cybercrimes are under-reported by the newspaper.
What can be said is that the
above article or story merely criticizes the Cybercrime and
Computer Related crimes Act in that it
does not fully protect victims of cybercrime. The newspaper
alleges that 60% of people still use a
single email for everything, not knowing that it provides easy
access for hackers which shows that a
significant number of people are vulnerable to cybercrimes.
7.8. Echo Online Newspaper (From 2008-2015)
NEWS PAPER ARTICLE(S) CODE CATEGORIES/THEMES ANALYTIC CODE
Cyber-crime biggest
threat to economy
Education on
Cybercrime
Types of cybercrimes Extent of cybercrimes
Cyber-criminal jailed Cybercrime court
case
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Offender
representation
Metrotech to Host
cyber-crime summit
Education on
Cybercrime
Incidence of
cybercrimes
Extent of cybercrimes
Apart from the obvious contention that Echo online newspaper
under-reports cybercrimes, on the
article cyber-crime biggest threat to economy37 has unpacked the
complexities of cybercrimes and
has clearly defined cybercrime in express terms to mean illegal
or illicit activity committed through
the use of computers and internet which was their first point of
discussion. Moreover the reporter
also claims that human trafficking and illegal money transfer
and fraud which are now thriving
36 (Anonymous, DCEC investigates digital migration, 2013) 37
(Anonymous, Cyber-Crime; Biggest Threat to Economy, 2014)
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21 | P a g e
through the use of computers and internet are now categorized as
cyber-crimes. I must also indicate
that the reporter also claims that Botswana has also been ranked
as one of the most secretive country
where fraud and illegal financial deals thrive, thus fraud and
tax evasion in the business and financial
sector has expressed concern that millions of swindled money
from Botswana is siphoned through
countries such as Zimbabwe. The aforesaid article is detailed
and satisfactory because it discusses
the types of cybercrimes that occur, the extent of cybercrimes
particularly the banking sector and
the report further claims that there is an Non-Governmental
Organization called African Cyber Risk
Institute (ACRI) that have a research department, which gathers
information from the public and
receive first-hand information from victims who lost money from
their banks and it was indicated
that cyber-crime is increasing in phenomenal speed. Botswana
have been subjected to millions of
spam the past decade, customers lost money through cyber dating
scam, and people lost money
from banks. A lot was learnt from this article and on a lighter
note just like other journalists from
other papers, when reporting cybercrime court cases the
attention is more on the offender only
which is something common so far.
8. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
It is important to allude to the fact that there is little to no
research conducted on media
representation of cybercrimes particularly in Botswana therefore
the prime focus in this section
predominantly lies on the correlates between this study and
international research as discussed from
the literature review. The findings of this research echoes most
of the findings that were discovered
before and upon analysing most online newspaper articles, there
was a pattern of reporting that I
observed and some overarching themes which will be discussed in
detail in this section. By and large
the media in Botswana generally underreports incidence of
cybercrimes because from a period seven
(7) years i.e. from 2008-2015 one would find a range of 1-16
articles/stories on cybercrimes from
each newspaper database as opposed to traditional crimes
generally. This finding however affirms
the study that was conducted by (Reiner,n.d) who suggested that
news reporting of crime and,
further, of the particular types of crime on which journalists
disproportionately focus, is selective and
unrepresentative.
Notwithstanding the above, I must also indicate that the
findings of this research shows that,
Botswana media tends to report cybercrime court cases and
narrates what transpired from the case.
This reflects (Brenner, 2010) findings that as with other forms
of crime, the media tends to report
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the outcome of cases that go to trial, and stories of computer
misuse may be uncritically accepted
and repeated by the journalists. In addition, the findings of
this research furthers shows that the story
of Joseph Ballout38 and Daniel Kenosi39 was often repeated by
six (6) newspapers from different
media houses i.e. Daily newspaper, Sunday standard newspaper,
The Voice newspaper, Mmegi
newspaper, Midweek Sun newspaper and the echo. Furthermore,
majority of journalists from various
media house tend to report cybercrimes as crimes that offenders
would hardly get bail, which gives
an implication that the courts are unjust in handling
cybercriminals, thereby labelling cybercriminals
as guilty before they go to trial. An example was when a
journalist (Shapi, 2014) from Daily
Newspaper reports that the presiding magistrate Mrs. Linah
Oahile-Mokibe uttered a statement
during trial to the effect that Ballout was man enough to take
care of his actions, noting that the
sentence was meant to send a strong message to would-be
criminals who might be tempted to act
likewise, another journalist (Pheko, 2014) from The Echo
newspaper had the same perspective;
Joseph Ballout found out the hard way that crime does not pay
silver haired cybercrime convict
Joseph Ballout will learn his fate today a strong statement that
which incriminates an offender. The
findings of this research showed that the media is biased
because unlike Joseph Ballouts court case
the perspective was to prejudge him as guilty and that he should
taste his own medicine but for
Daniel Kenosis case the perspective was that the state was
arbitrarily using its power to persecute
and label innocent offenders. The issue was diverted from
cybercrimes as Kenosi was facing to
infringement of media freedom because Daniel Kenosi was and is
still a journalist. This is how it was
reported (Matota, 2015); Scores of journalists and members of
the public thronged the Village
Magistrate Court on Wednesday morning to offer support to Daniel
Kenosi, a young journalist and
publisher who was arrested and jailed last week and also more
people were interviewed namely;
BPS Public Relations Officer Mr. Christopher Mbulawa and MISA
Botswana spokesperson, an extract
from the voice newspaper and mmegi newspaper (Matota, 2015: MISA
press release on Daniel
Kenosi, 2015);
In a press statement MISA noted that the Acts used to charge
Kenosi may not pass
constitutional muster because they are too wide and, therefore,
are an unreasonable
infringement of section 12 (1) of the Constitution which
provides for freedom of expression,
38 convicted on single charge of unlawful possession of computer
devices and 14 cashing and paying cards designed for the commission
of cyber fraud crimes has been fined P10 000 and sentenced to six
months prison term (Shapi, 2014). 39 A suspect in a case of
unlawful distribution of pornographic or obscene material contrary
to section 16 of the Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act
(Matota, 2015).
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which includes freedom by the media to communicate information
without hindrance In our
view, all these blanket provisions ought to be challenged in
court for breaching freedom of
expression.
Cybercrimes are portrayed to have negative effects and
consequences which are detrimental to the
economy of a country as a whole and Mowaneng, (2015) gave this
report the effects of cyber-crime
can affect the development of businesses in a bad manner thus
denting the image of an organisation.
I must also indicate that the findings shows that some private
newspapers tends to blame the
government for not doing enough to fight cybercrimes despite the
continuously increasing levels of
cybercrimes, example from a report from Botswana gazette; On the
governments side, Deputy E-
Government Controller, John Vassiliadis agreed that the cyber
law had been surpassed by the
advancement of technology (Mogende, 2013) this affirms
(Sekgwathe, 2014) findings that the exact
impact of cybercrime is often underestimated or unknown hence
the disastrous economic impact of
these attacks are not well established, one journalist reported
this in the echo
newspaper(Anonymous, Cyber-Crime; Biggest Threat to Economy,
2014); While there are no
statistics on cyber-crime activities in this country, human
trafficking and cagey illegal financial deals
are among the worrying cyber-crime activities which are
threatening the local Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). Lastly the findings further gives an impression
is that there are more potential victims
of cybercrime in Botswana because there is lack of awareness of
cybersecurity measures, training
and education all of which coincide with (Olowu, 2009) findings
there is a need to educate users in
security awareness, and develop cybercrime regulations.
The literature shows the common types of cybercrimes reported
are target cybercrimes, example
viruses, malwares and cyber fraud (Brenner, 2010: Sekgathe &
Talib, 2011). The findings of this report
shows that cyber fraud, card cloning are the common types of
cybercrimes reported by the media
(mmegi newspaper and the echo);
illegal money transfer and fraud which are now thriving through
the use of computers
and internet are now categorized as cyber-crimes40... cybercrime
cases on the increase Cyber
criminals have swindled over P9 million from Batswana, with
cases of credit card fraud
increasingly41... the most common cybercrime involve fraudulent
commercial or monetary
40 (Anonymous, Cyber-Crime; Biggest Threat to Economy, 2014) 41
(Anonymous, Cyber crime cases on the increase, 2014)
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24 | P a g e
transactions; and card cloning where skimming devices are placed
in ATM machines to
duplicate information from a victims debit card. In fraudulent
online shopping, victims are
lured into fully paying for non-existent goods before
delivery42.
The findings of this report shows that victims of cybercrimes
are neglected because the focus tends
to be more on the offenders and only a few articles discusses
the proactive measures that potential
victims of cybercrimes can employ, this was reported in the echo
newspaper (Anonymous, Cyber-
Crime; Biggest Threat to Economy, 2014) in the following
manner;
ACRI Managing Director Beza Belayneh made an observation that
organizations are making
significant investments on security systems and processes he
also emphasized that computer
and internet users must be educated continuously on emerging
threats on cyber space..
Project 2020 will deliver information and recommendations that
raise awareness amongst
governments, businesses and citizens to help them prepare their
defences against future
threats43.
Lastly the literature shows that due to the lack of security
awareness programmes or specialised
training for the law enforcement agencies, many online users are
becoming victims of cyber-crime
attacks and the incidence of successful attacks is increasing
with impunity (Olowu, 2009), the findings
of this report reflects the same and mmegi newspaper (Anonymous,
Cyber crime poses challenge to
police, 2015) claims that Even though the offence of cybercrime
is extraditable, it is often a challenge
for the police to utilise government resources in search of
suspects who in the end will be charged
with minor offences such as insultSo far, there is no specialist
unit in Botswana dealing with
cybercrime.
42 (Anonymous, Cyber crime poses challenge to police, 2015) 43
(Anonymous, Sunday Standard Online Edition. Botswana is Global
Cybercrime Hotspot, 2012)
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25 | P a g e
9. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION(S)
The general consensus is that, the media in Botswana i.e. both
the state and private media
underreports incidence of cybercrimes as opposed to traditional
crimes such as robbery, burglary
and so on. This however, gives an implication that journalists
are selective and only reports crime
news that are newsworthy to their target audience. In addition,
the media reports and narrates
outcomes of cases that go to courts, focusing more on offenders
thus neglecting victims of
cybercrimes. Notwithstanding that, cybercrimes have economic and
negative impacts on the victims
thus advocating for constant and continuous education on
cybercrimes and cybersecurity. Lastly, the
types of cybercrimes reported by the media are cyber fraud and
credit card cloning which calls for
public private partnership of all the stakeholders who are
affected by these types of crimes, primarily
the banking sector as it appears to be the case at the
moment.
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26 | P a g e
Tshephaone Reasentse
15 May 2015
10. PLAGIARISM DECLARATION
I _____________________________, the author of this paper do
hereby acknowledge that the
contents and information contained therein the report were
compiled and analysed by myself thus
any other information forming part of this report were cited
where necessary to acknowledge other
authors from whom I referred to. Hitherto, any deceiving
information or suspicious content provided
thereof forming part of this despite this declaration shall be
subjected to the provisions provided
therein the University of Botswana Academic Policies and upon
perusal whether in full or partial,
plagiarized content of this paper shall result to a failing
grade by the instructor. Any error(s) in this
report are/is of course my own.
Submitted on the __________Day of _____________ month,
_______________ year
Authors Signature:
________________________________
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27 | P a g e
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