Israel helping Botswana Government to spy on Journalists

20 July 2021
Share this story

By Suraya Dadoo

An investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has revealed how Botswana’s security forces routinely arrest journalists, take possession of their devices, and use Israeli phone-hacking technology to access their sources.

According to Jonathan Rozen, CPJ’s senior Africa researcher, Botswana police are making use of the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) – the flagship product of Israeli company – Cellebrite – to extract data from the phones of journalists who have written about state officials and corruption. This is part of the state’s wider crackdown on the media and government critics. Cellebrite’s devices enable security agencies to extract data from locked mobile phones.

In March, Botswana police seized computers and phones from arrested reporters with the Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler, a Facebook-based news outlet. Officers demanded passcodes, answered calls and read messages on the devices. They kept two of the phones as evidence even after the charges were withdrawn. David Baaitse, a reporter for Botswana’s Weekend Post newspaper, told CPJ that intelligence agents took phones belonging to him and his colleague to be analyzed for six months following their arrest last year.

“If you take my phone and go and analyze it, you have my folders and everything, all my contacts”, says Baaitse. He added that such actions by security forces hinder journalists’ ability to gather information. “Sources, they no longer trust us. They no longer want to deal directly with us”.

Mmegi journalist, Tsaone Basimanebotlhe, was forced to hand over her devices to security agents in July 2019. A senior officer then used Cellebrite technology to extract and analyse thousands of her messages, call logs, and emails, and her web browsing history. “They were looking for people that are divulging information to the media”, Basimanebotlhe told CPJ.

In April 2020, Oratile Dikologang – the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People’s Daily News website – was detained and interrogated.

“What are your sources, where do you get information”, Dikologang was asked repeatedly. Dikologang refused to reveal his sources – but he did provide the password to his phone. Police then “successfully extracted” and “thoroughly analysed” thousands of the journalist’s messages, contacts, images, audio files, and videos, as well social media accounts and applications using Cellebrite technology.

“This affects my work”, Dikologang told CPJ. “Since [my sources] know the phone has been taken by the state, maybe they will be afraid to give information”.

“It’s a huge breach for a journalist,” says Outsa Mokone, editor of Botswana’s Sunday Standard newspaper. Mokone’s devices were taken when he was arrested in 2014. “We can’t protect our sources if our phones are seized”.

“This thing has sent shivers down the people who take journalism seriously”, says Spencer Mogapi, chairman of the Botswana Editors Forum and editor of The Telegraph.  

Cellebrite told the CPJ that the company has “multiple checks and balances” to ensure that its technology is used as intended, and it requires that agencies and governments that use its technology uphold international human rights law.

However, Israeli human rights activist and lawyer, Eitay Mack, found that Cellebrite’s technology has been sold to several countries implicated in human rights violations and has been used to crack down on political dissent in China, Hong Kong, Russia, Belarus and Bangladesh.

Cellebrite has even sold spying products to bodies under international sanctions.

Botswana’s use of invasive spying technology to scour seized devices raises significant concerns over privacy and press freedom. “It [has] a chilling effect on freedom of the press”, says Dick Bayford, a lawyer in Gaborone whose firm represented Basimanebotlhe and Baaitse.

Botswana’s police spokesperson, Dipheko Motube, and government spokesperson, Batlhalefi Leagajang, did not respond to CPJ’s questions on the issue.

This is not the first time that the Botswana government has been found to be using Israeli spying equipment on journalists. In December, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab – which investigates digital espionage against civil society – detailed how the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) was one of seven African state security agencies using tools developed by the Israeli telecoms company, Circles, to infiltrate the phones of journalists investigating political corruption.

Israeli companies have been selling spying software to the Botswana government for years. In January 2020, Amnesty International filed a lawsuit in Israel calling on Israel’s Defence Ministry to ban the export of invasive spying software. In July 2020, an Israeli court denied the request.

According to some analysts, the sale of spying equipment is in fact an important part of Israel’s diplomatic charm offensive in Africa. Tel Aviv has been forging closer partnerships with governments on the continent in recent years in the hope of diminishing African solidarity with Palestine and gaining supportive votes in the UN.

Suraya Dadoo is a writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Last Posts

SADC PF Secretary-General Ms Boemo Sekgoma addresses Joint Sitting

Growing calls for stronger Parliamentary oversight of prisons in Southern Africa

Share this story

Share this storyBy Moses Magadza in Johannesburg, South Africa A joint sitting of five standing committees of the SADC Parliamentary Forum began in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday. The Secretary General of the SADC PF,…

20 July 2021

HSDSP-MEMBERS

SADC PF Committee proposes bold  recommendations on prison oversight

Share this story

Share this storyBy Moses Magadza in Johannesburg, South Africa On Wednesday, a one-day meeting of the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes (HSDSP) ended in Johannesburg with strong…

20 July 2021

Delegations of Russia and South Africa led by the two countries' Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Ronald Lamola

Russia’s FM, Sergey Lavrov discussed a range of bilateral issues with his South African counterpart, Ronald Lamola

Share this story

Share this storySergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia met with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola on April 16. Lamola had arrived in Moscow for the 18th meeting of the…

20 July 2021

President Putin announces Easter ceasefire

President of Russia Vladimir Putin announces Easter ceasefire

Share this story

Share this storyDuring a meeting at the Kremlin with the Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov President Vladimir Putin declared that the Russian Side is ceasing all military action starting…

20 July 2021

On April 17, 2025, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a telephone conversation

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has a phone conversation with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio

Share this story

Share this storyOn April 17, 2025, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a telephone conversation. Secretary Rubio, who is currently in Paris, informed the Russian side…

20 July 2021

In the first installment of the Two Shores Dialogue series, two journalists — Ma Jiaying from China and Héribert Adjovi from Africa — exchange insights on the pressing issues of our time: rising trade protectionism, the shifting global order, and the long-term consequences of tariff wars. Reflecting on the legacy of the Bandung Conference, they advocate for renewed solidarity among the Global South, grounded in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. A powerful, thoughtful dialogue that bridges continents and visions.

Beyond the tariff crisis, it’s time to take a fair look at globalisation… 70 years after the Bandung Conference

Share this story

Share this story‘A LOOK FROM BOTH SIDES’ is first and foremost an interesting Dialogue between two Friends, two eminent Journalists and a crossed vision of two media professionals, one Chinese and the other African (Beninese)…

20 July 2021

Related Stories