Bosch film row

Mariette Bosch always maintained her innocence

The head of Botswana's television news, Chris Bishop, has resigned, after the government refused to allow the airing of a documentary on the Mariette Bosch murder case and her subsequent execution.

Bosch, a South African, was hanged in Gaborone a month ago for murdering her best friend.

She subsequently married her friend's husband, with the trial being dubbed "Botswana's white mischief" after the famous book about love betrayal in colonial Kenya.

As the first white person and only the fourth woman to be hanged in Botswana since independence, her case attracted international attention.

Censorship

The government say they could not allow the Bosch documentary to be broadcast on the grounds it could have led to litigation against them, but controversy surrounds the circumstances of the hanging.

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Bosch's family only found out that she had been hanged the day afterwards, hearing about it on the radio whilst driving to prison to visit her.

Speaking to the South African news agency, Mr Bishop complained at government attempts to control broadcasts.

Botswana's media enjoys a great deal of freedom and debate has continued in the press and on radio over how she died and on whether the death penalty should be abolished.

Control

Mr Bishop said that he had been told after the documentary was halted that some form of control was being planned for the news department which he believed would have amounted to censorship.

"Bosch brought out what had been there all along," said Mr Bishop.

"There has been previous harassment and interference."

"If the government wants to run BTV as a government information service, what is the point of having journalists working there?"

The director of Information and Broadcasting, Andrew Sesinyi, is reported to have denied knowledge of moves to control the news at BTV.

Marietta Bosch was executed in Botswana on 31 March.

She was convicted in December 1999 for the murder of her best friend, Maria Wolmarans and married her husband, Tienie, a year after the killing.