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Friday 1 May 2009

SWAZILAND MEDIA FREEDOM WOES

Sunday 3 May is World Press Freedom Day, a Unesco supported annual event to draw attention to the role of news media in democratic societies.


The day is also used as an opportunity to highlight media freedom violations across the world. There will be a number of events in Africa to mark the day.


In Swaziland it is an opportunity to reflect on how media freedom has been under attack during the past year. Here are some of the major low lights in Swaziland since May 2008. You might like to get a hot drink before you read on: it’s a very long list. Click on the links for more details.


Swazi senators get select committee to charge newspapers with contempt of parliament after reports appear of a fight in public between two senators. Link


Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister, told the Swazi House of Assembly that his government supports free speech, ‘But where such speech corrupts or incites violence or civil disorder, our government will act to stop it.’ Link


Former Swazi cabinet minister Mfomfo Nkhambule, who writes a weekly column for the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, is threatened by police, and expelled from his local regiment for writing articles deemed by the ruling elite to be critical of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Link


The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland chapter reports that Swaziland’s media freedom is under attack like never before. It issued 15 ‘alerts’ about violations of media freedom in the first two months of this year (2009). Usually, MISA doesn’t expect to issue 15 alerts in a whole year. The violations were mainly around harassment of journalists, censorship, intimidation and assault of media persons. Link


The US State Department in its annual Country Report on Swaziland reported that during the past year the Swaziland attorney general and the prime minister warned journalists and diplomats against making statements that could be interpreted as seditious. It noted that journalists were threatened, harassed, assaulted, and detained during the year. Link


Reporters Without Borders (RWB) places Swaziland in 147th place in the world when it comes to freedom of the press. Swaziland Government spokesperson Macanjana Motsa tries to rubbish the report in the same week that the illegally-appointed prime minister Barnabas Dlamini told journalists that if they criticise King Mswati III’s recent speech to parliament they will face sedition charges. Link


A journalist was harassed and barred from reporting the speech of King Mswati III at the opening of the Swaziland Parliament because she is a woman. Link 1 Link 2


Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister tells Swazi journalists they have nothing to fear from him and they will enjoy media freedom while he is PM. But, as Newswatch India noted, ‘in the same breath, the prime minister banned the media from writing about political parties which the government does not recognise. These parties include the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) whose leader, Mario Masuku, is currently in jail for allegedly supporting terrorism.’ Link


Two new magazines published in Swaziland are threatened with closure because they have not been registered by the government. Link


Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister Barnabas Dlamini has said it was all right for Swazi police to haul in dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule and make him stop writing newspaper articles that criticised King Mswati III. Link


The Swazi Government wants to extend its censorship of the media to the Internet. Already newspapers and broadcast media are subject to censorship (and self-censorship) by government and other organs of the ruling elite. Now the Swaziland Attorney General Majahenkhaba Dlamini is looking to get a website from the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) closed down. Link


The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, in an editorial comment says ‘Constitution or no constitution, the days of the little freedom of speech we have left in this country are numbered,’ after its columnist Mfomfo Nkhambule was told to watch his mouth. Police say his writing is now bordering on Subversive acts. In short, he has been warned against expressing his opinion on how this country ought to be governed. Link


A Swazi journalist was attacked and cut with a knife by a man who was angry about something that had been written about him in a newspaper. Link


Swaziland police are accused of torturing and detaining two television reporters. The journalists, who work for Swaziland’s only independent television station Channel S, say they were arrested by police while they were following a story about a crime syndicate. Link


Journalists covering a traditional ceremony in Swaziland were harassed, banned and had their equipment confiscated by the police while trying to cover the event. Link


Swazi state police storm a workshop organised for media personnel by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and threatened to disrupt it if they were not allowed to monitor it. Link


Freedom advocates ARTICLE 19 report serious concerns about the way the Swazi Government is restricting freedom of expression in Swaziland following the introduction of the Suppression of Terrorism Act. It says Swazi journalists, political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested. Link


People in Swaziland are banned from talking about King Mswati III and the war he has declared against his own people. Jim Gama, who is known as the ‘traditional’ prime minister and has more influence over Swaziland than the real PM, issued an edict to say that the king’s subjects must not refer to the king’s speech ever again. The speech in question was made when King Mswati III illegally-appointed Barnabas Dlamini as prime minister. Introducing Dlamini to his subjects, the king told Dlamini to get the terrorists and all who support them. Link


Reporters Without Borders condemns the Swazi attorney general’s ‘threatening remarks to journalists on 17 November 2008. He said journalists who criticise the government could be arrested under a new anti-terrorism law that has just been used to crack down on opposition groups.’ Link


Swaziland’s attorney general, Majahenkhaba Dlamini, tells journalists, ‘If you appear to be supporting terrorists in your reporting, woe unto you.’ He says journalists who are critical of the government ‘would be viewed as supporting “terrorists” and arrested’. Link


Swazi government officials heavily censored journalists as they prepared to interview King Mswati III on his return from a trip abroad. Journalists were told what to ask and that each journalist would be allowed only one question. This came amid anticipation that the king was going to be asked about government's extravagant spending on the country's 40/40 celebrations held in September 2008. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3


More than 90 percent of people in the kingdom say they want the state-controlled monopoly of radio in Swaziland abolished. They want to have radio stations that are independent of government, but under the control of ordinary people. They also want radio to present impartial news and not concentrate on news about the Swazi Government or King Mswati III. Link


Research published by the Media Institute of Southern Africa into censorship and self-censorship of the media in Swaziland concludes that according to journalists and editors the biggest problem with censorship in Swaziland was the position taken by King Mswati III. Journalists are afraid to upset him for fear of retribution. Link 1 Link 2


Journalists in Swaziland were illegally stopped from reporting on the kingdom’s national election. News emerged of widespread intimidation and harassment of reporters as they tried to cover the election registration process that ended in July 2008. Link


Swaziland’s traditional prime minister Jim Gama calls for a Swazi journalist to face serious punishment or even death for writing an article that was ‘disrespectful’ to King Mswati III. He said the report about the financial cost to the kingdom of holding a three-day ‘people’s parliament’ had been ‘very disrespectful to royalty and the king’. Link

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