EDITOR: ‘SUN SETS ON MEDIA FREEDOM’

The editor of the Swazi News says she finds it ‘very scary’ to write for her newspaper following the High Court ruling that could send one of her fellow editors to jail for two years.

Phephisa Khoza said the decision to fine the Nation magazine editor Bheki Mukhubu E200,000 (US$22,000) or send him to jail if he does not pay by 23 April 2013, was ‘one of the harshest sentences to be handed down by our courts’.

Mukhubu was sentenced for ‘scandalising’ the courts after he wrote two articles for his magazine criticising the judiciary.

Writing in the Swazi News on Saturday (20 April 2013), Khoza said, ‘The sun has set on media freedom in the country.’

She said, ‘For a long time the country’s politicians have been saying media practitioners in the country are free to write on any issue.

‘As a journalist I find it very scary to write this piece. I do not know what those in charge of the administration of justice will perceive it as but the sentence on Bheki Mukhubu and The Nation magazine is one of the harshest sentences to be handed down by our courts.’

Khoza, edits the Swazi News, part of the Times of Swaziland group, which publishes the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III’s, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Khoza said, ‘A free media is the epitome of democracy and basic liberties. A country’s freedom is measured through the way the country treats its media. An independent press should be the mirror of society and that helps to play the role of watchdogs where there are no political parties.

‘The world measures a free society through the freedom of its press.’

See also

FUND SET UP IN BID TO PAY EDITOR’S FINE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/fund-set-up-in-bid-to-pay-editors-fine.html

NOT FIRST ATTACK ON ‘NATION’ EDITOR

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/not-first-attack-on-nation-editor_20.html

EDITOR’S SENTENCE ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/editors-sentence-violates-constitution.html

EDITOR FACING JAIL TO APPEAL SENTENCE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/editor-facing-jail-to-appeal-sentence.html

VOICES SUPPORTING BELEAGUERED EDITOR

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/voices-supporting-beleaguered-editor.html

A TALE OF TWO SWAZI EDITORS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-tale-of-two-swazi-editors.html

PUDEMO CONDEMNS EDITOR’S CONVICTION

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/pudemo-condemns-editors-conviction.html

ARTICLES THAT MIGHT GET EDITOR JAILED

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/articles-that-might-get-editor-jailed.html

SOUTH AFRICA EDITORS BACK MAKHUBU

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/south-africa-editors-back-makhubu.html

HIGH COURT SUPPRESSES MEDIA FREEDOM

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/high-court-suppresses-media-freedom.html

MISA: EDITOR’S CONVICTION ‘BRUTAL’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/misa-editors-conviction-brutal.html

EDITOR’S CONTEMPT SENTENCE ‘SHOCKING’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/editors-contempt-sentence-shocking.html

EDITOR SET FOR TWO YEARS IN JAIL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/editor-set-for-two-years-in-jail.html

SALE OF FOOD AID BY GOVT ‘ NOT ANOMALY’

A top civil servant in Swaziland has said that the sale by the government of maize donated by Japan to feed hungry people in the kingdom was not an anomaly.

It was revealed this week that nearly 12,000 metric tonnes of maize intended for humanitarian  purposes had been sold through the National Maize Corporation on the open market and the E24 million (US$3 million) raised was put in a special account at the Central Bank of Swaziland. 

Now, Phephisa Khoza, editor of the Swazi News, reports that the sale was not considered by government to be unusual.

Writing in her own newspaper (16 March 2013) she reported Ministry of Economic Planning and Development Principal Secretary Bertram Stewart, saying that selling the maize donated by the Japanese Government was not an anomaly. 

The Japanese Government has not commented publicly on the sale, but Stewart claimed Japan knew about the sale. He said money raised was to be spent on subsidies for farm inputs for farmers.

In Swaziland three in ten people are officially classified as malnourished and they rely on humanitarian food aid to stop from starving.

What Stewart did not explain was why, if the Japanese Government wanted to assist farmers with subsidies, it did not do so openly.

Senior Royal, Prince Hlangusemphi, who is Minister for Economic Planning and Development, has yet to make a public statement on the sale, which is seen in some quarters as a scandal. 

Earlier this week, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, called the government decision to sell the maize ‘callousness’. In an editorial comment it said, ‘to let down its needy citizens is such a low down, dirty shame’. 

See also

GOVT SELLS MAIZE DONATED FOR HUNGRY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/govt-sells-maize-donated-for-hungry.html

GOVT-DONATED MAIZE SCANDAL WON’T DIE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/govt-donated-maize-scandal-wont-die.html