The editor of one of Swaziland’s independent newspapers
and a senior reporter have received death threats because of a story they are
working on involving the kingdom’s security forces.
The editor of the Times Sunday Innocent Maphalala and senior reporter on the paper Mfanukhona
Nkambule have reportedly received threats of grievous bodily harm, ‘possibly
even leading to death’, according to the Times of Swaziland newspaper.
It reported on Friday (13 January
2017), ‘The
threats emanate from a story the publication is pursuing regarding one of the
country’s security forces which has engaged in an action that has compromised
this country internationally.’
The Times, which is a companion paper to the
Times Sunday, gave no further details
of the nature of the story.
It
reported, ‘Further attempts to engage the Times
Managing Editor, Martin Dlamini, and the Publisher, Paul Loffler, also failed
to convince this publication to drop the story. Even though the people
who issued the threats remain faceless, they threatened that should the story
see the light of day, the duo risked being eliminated.’
It added,
‘The warning was conveyed directly to the Times
Sunday editor by a concerned citizen, who is a highly-placed government
official and has insight to what could be going on behind the scenes. This
citizen, who will not be named, pleaded with the editor to drop the story if he
wanted to live.’
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