KING’S CENSORSHIP – UPDATE

Here’s a quick follow-up to my report on Wednesday that King Mswati III had told the world’s news media that political parties in Swaziland were no longer banned. The Swazi media ignored the story.

This was important news because Swaziland had just been through a two-day national strike (with more strikes promised) to try to get the government to allow political parties.

I speculated that the Swazi media did not run the story because it had not originated from an official media statement from the king.

The managing editor of the Times Martin Dlamini confirms my suspicion. Writing in his weekly Just Thinking column in today’s paper he says that when he returns from foreign trips, ‘His Majesty provides journalists with an opportunity to pose questions on his trips, so let’s give His Majesty an opportunity to share this with his people.’

Or put another way: the managing editor is saying that the Times is not staffed by independent journalists who go out and find and report news, instead they are public relations scribes for the king. When the king decides to tell the newspaper something it will print it.

The Times needs to think carefully about the service it gives its readers. In the same column Dlamini says that people learned of the king’s statement on political parties through the Associated Press (maybe they were reading Swazi Media Commentary). Dlamini says, ‘My phone hasn’t stopped ringing with people either shocked, excited or dismissive of the reports.’

Any newspaper worthy of its name would be publishing the story of the king’s comments and follow up reports on reaction from Swazi people. Instead, the Times remains silent.