Police in Swaziland beat up
a journalist and demanded he delete photographs he took of them attacking and shooting
at striking textile workers.
It was one of many cases of
police and state forces attacking and harassing journalists in the kingdom
ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Broadcasting
is severely censored and one of only two national newspaper groups in the
kingdom is in effect owned by the King.
It happened on Thursday (30
August 2018) at Nhlangano where workers, mostly women, were protesting about
poor pay.
Andile Nsibande of the Times of Swaziland, the only independent
daily newspaper in the kingdom (recently
renamed Eswatini by King Mswati), was viciously attacked by police officers
and prison warders who had been sent to assist them, the Times’ companion newspaper the Times
Sunday
reported.
‘The officers kicked and
punched the defenceless newsman until he fell to the ground,’ it said. ‘They
further hurled expletives at him.’
Nsibande was treated in
hospital.
More than 200 paramilitary
police and correctional facility warders with riot shields, helmets and batons were
in Nhlangano on Thursday. Police fired several gunshots. It was
the third police attack on workers in a week and one of many in recent
times.
Police and security forces in
Swaziland routinely physically attack or harass journalists.
In July 2018, the
Health Minister Sibongile Ndlela-Simelane called on police to
arrest a Swazi Observer journalist
who was photographing government ministers’ cars outside the Deputy Prime
Minister’s office. She demanded that the photographs be deleted which the
journalist did. The newspaper had previously published a report about
government ministers’ BMW cars being in a bad state of repair. It was checking
a government claim that the vehicles had been repaired and were back on the
road.
In February 2018 prison warders attacked
a journalist in a public street near Kwaluseni when he took photographs of
them travelling in the backs of overcrowded vehicles.
In December 2017 editor of Swaziland Shopping
Zweli Martin Dlamini fled
to neighbouring South Africa after he received death threats. He had
written a story about the King’s dealings in the telecommunications industry.
In January 2017 the editor of the Times Sunday Innocent Maphalala and senior reporter on the paper
Mfanukhona Nkambule received
threats of grievous bodily harm, ‘possibly even leading to death’,
according to the Times of Swaziland
newspaper. It said, ‘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.’
Thulani
Maseko and Bheki
Makhubu
gained international
attention when in 2014 they were
sentenced to two years in jail after writing
and publishing articles in the Nation
magazine that were critical of the Swazi judiciary. They were released
by the Swazi Supreme Court on 30 June 2015 after they had served 15 months
of their sentences.
There is no media freedom in Swaziland, according to
the latest
annual report from Reporters Without Borders which ranked the
kingdom at number 152 out of 180 countries in the world ranking. It stated the
kingdom, ‘prevents journalists from working freely and obstructs access to
information. No court is allowed to prosecute or try members of the government,
but any criticism of the regime is liable to be the subject of a
prosecution. For fear of reprisals, journalists censor themselves almost
systematically.’
The US State Department in a review
of human rights in Swaziland for 2017 stated, ‘Officials impeded
press freedom. Although no law bans criticism of the monarchy, the prime
minister and other officials cautioned journalists against publishing such
criticism with veiled threats of newspaper closure or job loss.’
The report stated, ‘Broadcast media remained firmly
under state control. Most persons obtained their news from radio broadcasts.’
In 2015, Lawyers for Human Rights (Swaziland) and CIVICUS, an international human
rights group, in a submission to the United Nations listed a number of media freedom violations in Swaziland.
It said the
Swazi Government, which is not elected but appointed by the King, ‘strictly controls freedom of expression and the media’.
They added, ‘Reporting on royal and political matters is severely
restricted. Further, regular threats emanating from senior government officials
and the royal family to journalists also lead to government censorship and
self-censorship by the media further curtailing democratic freedoms’.
The joint report added, ‘On 15 January 2014, the government-controlled Swazi
Observer newspaper suspended its editor Thulani Thwala and weekend editor
Alec Lushaba after they were accused of failing to adhere to the mandate of the
newspaper by publishing negative news stories about the King.
‘The journalists were accused of failing to heed several warnings not to publish damaging reports about the King. Prior to the suspension, they published reports indicating that the Swazi government had solicited a financial bailout from South Africa. Eight months after their suspension, the Board of Directors of the Swazi Observer Newspaper Group reinstated them.
‘The
Swazi Observer newspaper is
controlled by the Tibiyo Taka Ngwane conglomerate, which is owned by the King.
News items published are highly censored.’
See also
‘EDITOR
FLEES AFTER DEATH THREAT’
SWAZI
GOVERNMENT FORCES NEWSPAPER TO CLOSE
JOURNALISTS
‘SCARED TO DO THEIR JOBS’
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/journalists-scared-to-do-their-jobs.html
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