Bheki Makhubu, the editor of the Nation magazine in Swaziland, who faces two years in jail for contempt
by scandalising the court, is to appeal his sentence, the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA) in Windhoek, Namibia, reported.
Bheki Makhubu, and the Nation publisher Swaziland Independent Publishers were on Wednesday
(17 April 2013) ordered to pay E200,000 (US$22,000) in fines within three days.
If payment is not made Makhubu will go to jail for two
years.
Vuyisile Hlatshwayo, a veteran journalist and current
national director of the Swaziland chapter of MISA, called the judgment an ‘assault
to media freedom and free speech’.
Hlatshwayo, who is also a director and founding member of
the Nation magazine, said, ‘The Nation is the only publication in
Swaziland that speaks truth to power and is the voice of the voiceless in a
country that is fast becoming a police state.
‘The fine imposed by the judge is also a total clampdown
on media freedom - it sends a strong and disturbing signal to the already
censored newspapers and broadcast media.’
In a statement, MISA quoted Secretary-General of the Swaziland Editors’ Forum
Jabu Matsebula saying the ruling against the Nation was one of the heaviest fines ever handed down in the
kingdom.
‘It will certainly have a chilling effect on the press
and on citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of expression,’ Matsebula
said.
Makhubu and the Nation
were convicted of criminal contempt after publishing two articles in 2009 and
2010 that Swaziland High Court Judge
Bheki Maphalala ruled were ‘treasonous if not subversive in the extreme’.
He found they had a ‘tendency to bring the administration
of justice into disrepute’.
Makhubu had accused the Swazi Supreme Court, ‘of not
being impartial and that their decision not to allow multipartism in this
country was actuated by an improper agenda which they were pursuing and that it
was not based on law and their conscience’.
Judge Maphalala said that a one of the articles by Makhubu
was, ‘a scurrilous attack on the Chief Justice [Michael Ramodibedi], as a Judge
of this court.
‘The article unlawfully and intentionally violated and
impugned his dignity and authority; it was calculated or intended to lower his
authority and interfere with the administration of justice.’
Protests against Makhubu’s sentence have been made across
the world, but so far no media outlet in Swaziland has made a public
condemnation of the court’s decision.
See also
VOICES SUPPORTING BELEAGUERED EDITOR
A TALE OF TWO SWAZI EDITORS
PUDEMO CONDEMNS EDITOR’S CONVICTION
ARTICLES THAT MIGHT GET EDITOR JAILED
SOUTH AFRICA EDITORS BACK MAKHUBU
HIGH COURT SUPPRESSES MEDIA FREEDOM
MISA: EDITOR’S CONVICTION ‘BRUTAL’
EDITOR’S CONTEMPT SENTENCE ‘SHOCKING’
EDITOR SET FOR TWO YEARS IN JAIL
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