Botswana prison authorities, who affirmed there is nothing wrong with taking pictures as long as one is outside court and not disturbing prison officers from executing their duties. Fortunately, Baraedi was not injured but was unfairly and violently prevented from doing his job and bringing information to the public. FREE EXPRESSION ONLINE New Bill threatens freedom of expression online On 22 April 2014, the Botswana Parliament passed a law allowing eletronic communications to be used as evidence in court. The then Minister of defence justice and Security Dikgakgamatso Seretse said the law will compliment the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act by allowing information stored in computers, exchanged in emails, and social networks to be admissable in court as evidence. According to the law the burden of proof lies on the agrieved to convince the court that indeed the said communication originates from the accused. Botswana Communication Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) will be responsible for autheticating communications. This bill has the potential of discouraging people from contributing to live discusions on broadcast media, fearing the real possibility of being dragged before courts of law for alleged defamation, since the law allows for their recorded conversations to be used as evidence in courts. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Access to information advocates use election as impetus to increase lobbying MISA Botswana continued throughout 28 So This is Democracy? 2014 2014 to scale up freedom of information campaigns by encouraging government to hasten legislating freedom of information. Lobbying across the county focused on advising members of the public to demand aspiring members of parliament to support access to information initiatives in exchange for their votes. As a result, many aspirants declared publicly during the Gabz FM parliamentary debates that they would support the bill if elected to parliament. The freedom of information campaign team will reach parliament end of February 2015 and the public will be waiting to gauge their newly elected legislators’ trustworthiness. At present, Botswana’s government closely guards information. Journalists constantly report being made to wait unreasonable lengths of time or not receiving non-committal attitudes from from government officers when posing questions to them regarding services within their custody – questions they should have no trouble answering and which are in the public interest and right to have answered.