The Government in Swaziland
has been monitoring private online communications for some years without legal authority, a new report
discloses.
These include internet
blogs, email and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and internet chatrooms.
Telephone conversations
have also been monitored.
The revelations add weight
to anecdotal evidence circulating in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are barred from
taking part in elections and prodemocracy groups are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
The report from the US
State Department looked at events in 2017. It stated, ‘There were credible
reports that the government monitored private online communications without
appropriate legal authority.’
It referred to a document
called the Private and Cabinet First
Quarter Report of 2015, in which, ‘the government press office stated
that authorities monitored internet blogs, email, and social networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, and internet chat rooms’.
The US report added, ‘Members
of civil society and prodemocracy groups reported the government monitored
email, Facebook, and internet chat rooms, and police monitored certain individuals’
telephones.
‘Individuals who criticized
the monarchy risked exclusion from the patronage system of the traditional
regiments (chiefdom-based groupings of men dedicated to serving the King) that
distributed scholarships, land, and other benefits. Both undercover and
uniformed police appeared at labor union, civil society, arts, and business
functions.’
The report stated that in
Swaziland, ‘The law severely restricts free speech and gives police wide
discretion to detain persons for lengthy terms without trial or public hearing.
Those convicted of sedition may be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
‘The King may suspend the
constitutional right to free expression at his discretion, and the government
severely restricted freedom of expression, especially regarding political
issues or the royal family.’
It added, ‘Most journalists
practiced self-censorship. Journalists expressed fear of judicial reprisals for their reporting on some
High Court cases and matters involving the monarchy. Daily newspapers
criticized government corruption and inefficiency but generally avoided
criticizing the royal family.’
Radio and television
stations, it stated, ‘practiced self-censorship and refused to broadcast
anything perceived as critical of the government or the monarchy’.
In March 2018, Swaziland’s
Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini hinted the government might try to restrict access to social media.
He told Senators there was
nothing police could do ‘at the moment’ about posts on sites such as Facebook.
The Swazi Observer reported (28 March
2018), ‘The premier told the senators that all countries in the world were
concerned on whether social media was good for development or not.’
He was speaking during a
debate about how video footage showing the murder of businessman Victor Gamedze
who was shot dead in a petrol station appeared on social media.
The Swazi Government has a
history of hostility to social media. In 2011, Dlamini said it was important to keep
information published on Facebook
away from the Swazi people. ‘If such stories from these websites then make it
to the newspapers and radios, then the public at large will start to think
there is some truth in the story yet it was just malicious gossip,’ the Times of Swaziland reported him saying
at the time.He
was commenting after information about a cabinet minister had appeared on
social media.
In the run up to April 2011 a group used Facebook to try to drum up support for an ‘uprising’ for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The Government threatened the online activists with prosecution.
In the run up to April 2011 a group used Facebook to try to drum up support for an ‘uprising’ for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The Government threatened the online activists with prosecution.
In
May 2011, the Times of Swaziland
reported Swaziland
had specially ‘trained officers’ to track down people who used Facebook to criticise the Swazi Government.
Nathaniel Mahluza, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Information
Communication and Technology, said the government was worried by what the
newspaper called ‘unsavoury comments’ about the kingdom being published on the
internet.
Academic research published in 2013 suggested that
people in Swaziland
used the Internet to communicate with one another
and share information and ideas about the campaign for democracy, bypassing the
Swazi mainstream media which was heavily censored. They debated and shared
information about activities designed to bring attention to the human rights
abuses in the kingdom.
See also
PM HINTS AT SOCIAL MEDIA RESTRICTION
ONE
IN THREE USE INTERNET FOR NEWS
SWAZI
PEOPLE SPEAK UP FOR THEMSELVES
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/swazi-people-speak-up-for-themselves.html
GOVERNMENT THREATENS FACEBOOK CRITICS
GOVERNMENT THREATENS FACEBOOK CRITICS
SWAZI
POLICE TRACK FACEBOOK USERS
FACEBOOK
TELLS TRUTH MEDIA WON’T
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/facebook-tells-truth-media-wont.html
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