The Swazi
Observer newspaper misled its readers when its reported that the Swaziland
police had ok’d an LGBTI event in the kingdom.
The misreporting led to confusion and the police
making a forceful statement in clarification.
Police blamed the Rock of Hope which is organising the
event for the error.
Rock of Hope in a statement said, ‘We did not say or
intend to imply that the police have endorsed Rock of Hope or the upcoming
lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex (LGBTI) Pride event.’ It added, ‘They are
not associated with our organisation and neither did they sanction our intended
event.’
The problem started when the Observer’s Saturday edition (23 June 2018)
published a story with the headline ‘Police ok gay march’. However nowhere in the story did the newspaper give
evidence to support the headline. It did not quote the police nor Rock of Hope
saying police had given support.
This led to confusion and the Hhohho Regional
Police Commissioner Charles Tsabedze wrote a strong letter to Rock of Hope. He called
Rock of Hope dishonest and said it ‘gave the impression that we gave authority
that the event should go ahead’.
Tsabedze said police had agreed to provide
security and traffic control. He added, ‘We wish to categorically point out
that we are not associated with your organisation and neither did we sanction
your intended event.’
He did not mention the misreporting of the police’s
position by the Swazi Observer, a
newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch.
LGBTI Pride organiser Melusi Simelane told
the Daily Beast the police had
been ‘incredibly welcoming, supportive, and professional’.
The Beast reported, ‘He added,
“up until a media report saying they had ‘OK’d’ the event. Then somewhere
within the police leadership there was alarm, and we were called into a meeting
to be told that the police can’t be seen to support anything at all, that all
they would do was provide security as for any other event. Really, they’ve been
great.’
The Beast reported police told
Simelane they were receiving ‘a lot of threats’ from people wanting to attack
Pride marchers.
The Pride which takes place on Saturday 30 June 2018
is the first LGBTI event of its kind in Swaziland. The Observer has over the past week
published three articles demonising LGBTI people likening them to
child sex monsters and people who have sex with animals.
See also
‘OBSERVER’ STEPS UP LGBTI HATE CAMPAIGN
FIRST
LGBTI PRIDE IN SWAZILAND
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