King Mswati III of Swaziland has been named and shamed as one of the world’s worst predators when it comes to press freedom.
King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is cited by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) in its annual report on press freedom, published this week.
This is what RWB has to say in full about the king and Swaziland. Don’t expect to hear about this in the Swazi media.
Swaziland is self-destructing and if there is a single person to blame it is clearly King Mswati III. State-owned media only carry reports that have been checked and approved by the information minister. Independent journalists find it extremely hard to access official information.
Criticising the king is inconceivable. In November 2008, the justice minister warned that journalists who criticised the government. A journalist working for the Times of Swaziland, the only privately-owned newspaper, had to apologise publicly to the king in January 2009 after writing a series of irreverent articles.
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