I made headlines in the Swazi Observer earlier this month (June 2008) when I said at a public gathering in Swaziland that we should not consider media workers at the state-controlled SBIS radio to be ‘journalists’ because, in fact, they were propagandists.
Last week I wrote about how Swaziland’s ‘traditional prime minister’ Jim Gama had threatened journalists with punishments that could include the death penalty if they criticised King Mswati III.
Now, I am reminded of a case that neatly brings these two topics together.
It concerns a broadcaster at SBIS who allowed criticism of the king to go out live over the airwaves.
It happened in August 2006 when, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland chapter, management of the radio station were told by government to ‘toe the line’ or the government would be forced to ‘pull the plug’ on programmes that are ‘wayward’.
Here is the background, according to MISA,
‘On August 24 2006, the minister for public service and information, Themba Msibi, warned the Swazi media against criticising the king, instilling further fear into an already timid press which cannot freely operate due to a perpetually hostile environment that continues to prevail despite the kingdom’s new Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression.
‘The minister’s threats followed a live radio programme of news and current affairs in which a human rights lawyer criticised the king’s sweeping constitutional powers. Aired on the state broadcaster, the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS), the human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko, had been asked to comment on a visit by an African Union (AU) human rights team which was on a fact-finding mission to Swaziland during the week of 21 August.
‘In response, Maseko said that, as human rights activists, they had concerns about the king’s sweeping constitutional powers and the fact that he the king was wrongfully placed above the Constitution. He said they were going to bring this and other human rights violations to the attention of the AU delegation.
‘Not pleased with the broadcast, the government was quick to respond. Msibi spoke on air the following day to sternly warn the media against criticising the king. He said the media should exercise respect and avoid issues that seek to question the king or his powers.
‘The minister said his message was not directed only to radio but to all media, both private and government-owned. He said that in government they had noticed that there was growing trend in the media to criticise the king when he should be above criticism and public scrutiny.’
MISA continues, ‘A senior journalist at the radio station told MISA Swaziland: “Censorship is an everyday occurrence here. As a government medium, there is very little we can do. We just have to survive under the circumstances.”’
While we’re in the mood to ‘out’ SBIS for the propaganda tool that it is, let’s remember what happened in April 2003 when Abednego Ntshangase became public service and information minister.
According to the Committee to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York, ‘speaking at his first official appearance before the House of Assembly, Ntshangase told parliamentarians, “The national television and radio stations are not going to cover anything that has a negative bearing on government.”’
Ntshangase warned that those who do not support government policies will be barred from broadcasting their views.’The ban on negative content was to apply to SBIS, which operates the only news-carrying radio channels in the kingdom, and to Swazi TV, the kingdom’s only television station. Both outlets are state run.
It was abut this time that Swazi-TV news director, Sabelo Masuku, refused to hand over footage of a protest march conducted by teachers, which the cabinet wished to scrutinise, and was fired.
‘Government can fire the news departments whenever there is a disagreement, but eventually they will run out of people,’ said Masuku.
He noted that the most talented Swazi broadcast journalists leave the country for more lucrative media work in South Africa and elsewhere.
See also
SWAZI KING THREAT TO MEDIA FREEDOM
Showing posts with label Minister of Public Service and Information. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minister of Public Service and Information. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Monday, 24 September 2007
SWAZI JOURNALISTS CAN’T ADD UP
A row over the murder rate in Swaziland has exposed shortcomings in Swazi journalism – and also in the Swazi Government.
S’gayoyo Magongo, the Minister of Public Service and Information, publicly attacked overseas’ journalists at a press conference on Thursday about the number of murders that are committed in Swaziland.
The internationally respected Economist group of magazines had published statistics in its publication Pocket World in Figures that said Swaziland had the second highest number of murders in the whole world.
The Economist report was picked up by the Times Sunday and this is what brought it to the Minister’s attention. The Economist had reported that there were 13.6 murders per 100,000 head of population in Swaziland.
On Friday (21 September 2007) both the Swazi Observer and the Times of Swaziland reported S’gayoyo ‘slamming’ and ‘rubbishing’ the report. S’gayoyo said that the Economist got it wrong.
S’gayoyo scoffed at a press conference that this would mean that something like 155,856 Swazis would have been murdered in a year, an incredible figure considering that there are only 1.1 million people living in the whole of Swaziland.
The figures would be alarming indeed, if that is what the Economist said. In fact the Economist said there were 13.6 murders per 100,000 people in Swaziland. When you extend that ratio to the whole 1.1 million Swaziland population the total number of murders comes to about 150 a year. This figure is roughly the same number of murders that have been reported by the Royal Swazi Police in its annual reports, demonstrating that the Economist got it about right.
The Times Sunday got the figures wrong. And so did S’gayoyo. He told the press conference that ‘the Government’ had checked the original source of the information (so we must assume that ‘the Government’ – whoever that is – made the same mistake as the Times Sunday journalist).
What they both did was to read 13.6 per 100,000 as 13.6 per cent of 100,000. This enabled them to arrive at the figure of 155,856. The mistake should be obvious. Trying to calculate the murder rate in the whole 1.1 million population as 13.6 per cent of 100,000 simply makes no sense.
So the minister made a basic statistical error. But how come both the Times and the Observer didn’t point out the mistake to him, but instead printed it?
There are two parts to the answer, I think. The first is that S’gayoyo is a minister and journalists in Swaziland don’t, as a habit, correct ministers (even when, as in this case, he was so clearly wrong). The second part to the answer is that the Times and Observer journalists themselves probably didn’t understand the statistic either. You only need to read the business pages of both the daily newspapers to see reports written in such a way that it is clear that the journalists don’t understand figures.
S’gayoyo’s error is embarrassing for him, because he told the press conference that ‘the Government’ had checked the original report on the Internet, so the misinterpretation of the Economist report must be seen as his own responsibility.
He then used the Economist ‘error’ as an excuse to attack the international media for misreporting Swaziland.
The Times reported S’gayoyo saying, ‘On behalf of the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland, the Ministry of Public Services and Information wishes to caution about the ramifications of one-sided, biased and non-factual journalistic practices.'
He went on, ‘Inaccurate, one-sided, negative reports give an unattractive perception of the country and may fan away foreign direct investment and tourism.’
The original mistake was obvious to people outside of Swazi journalism and Swazi government and it was quickly spotted and yesterday (23 September 2007) the Times Sunday fell over itself to correct the mistake.
So to recap: the Times Sunday journalists, the Minister of Public Service and Information and ‘the Government’ all failed their stats exam. And as for the reporting of the Economist’s role in all this, it wasn’t the international journalists who were ‘inaccurate’ and ‘one-sided’ and ‘non-factual’. It was the Times Sunday and Minister S’gayoyo himself.
So, one small lack of understanding of a statistic has exposed failings in Swazi journalism, the Swazi ‘Government’ and the Minister of Public Service and Information. Not bad for one morning’s work.
S’gayoyo Magongo, the Minister of Public Service and Information, publicly attacked overseas’ journalists at a press conference on Thursday about the number of murders that are committed in Swaziland.
The internationally respected Economist group of magazines had published statistics in its publication Pocket World in Figures that said Swaziland had the second highest number of murders in the whole world.
The Economist report was picked up by the Times Sunday and this is what brought it to the Minister’s attention. The Economist had reported that there were 13.6 murders per 100,000 head of population in Swaziland.
On Friday (21 September 2007) both the Swazi Observer and the Times of Swaziland reported S’gayoyo ‘slamming’ and ‘rubbishing’ the report. S’gayoyo said that the Economist got it wrong.
S’gayoyo scoffed at a press conference that this would mean that something like 155,856 Swazis would have been murdered in a year, an incredible figure considering that there are only 1.1 million people living in the whole of Swaziland.
The figures would be alarming indeed, if that is what the Economist said. In fact the Economist said there were 13.6 murders per 100,000 people in Swaziland. When you extend that ratio to the whole 1.1 million Swaziland population the total number of murders comes to about 150 a year. This figure is roughly the same number of murders that have been reported by the Royal Swazi Police in its annual reports, demonstrating that the Economist got it about right.
The Times Sunday got the figures wrong. And so did S’gayoyo. He told the press conference that ‘the Government’ had checked the original source of the information (so we must assume that ‘the Government’ – whoever that is – made the same mistake as the Times Sunday journalist).
What they both did was to read 13.6 per 100,000 as 13.6 per cent of 100,000. This enabled them to arrive at the figure of 155,856. The mistake should be obvious. Trying to calculate the murder rate in the whole 1.1 million population as 13.6 per cent of 100,000 simply makes no sense.
So the minister made a basic statistical error. But how come both the Times and the Observer didn’t point out the mistake to him, but instead printed it?
There are two parts to the answer, I think. The first is that S’gayoyo is a minister and journalists in Swaziland don’t, as a habit, correct ministers (even when, as in this case, he was so clearly wrong). The second part to the answer is that the Times and Observer journalists themselves probably didn’t understand the statistic either. You only need to read the business pages of both the daily newspapers to see reports written in such a way that it is clear that the journalists don’t understand figures.
S’gayoyo’s error is embarrassing for him, because he told the press conference that ‘the Government’ had checked the original report on the Internet, so the misinterpretation of the Economist report must be seen as his own responsibility.
He then used the Economist ‘error’ as an excuse to attack the international media for misreporting Swaziland.
The Times reported S’gayoyo saying, ‘On behalf of the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland, the Ministry of Public Services and Information wishes to caution about the ramifications of one-sided, biased and non-factual journalistic practices.'
He went on, ‘Inaccurate, one-sided, negative reports give an unattractive perception of the country and may fan away foreign direct investment and tourism.’
The original mistake was obvious to people outside of Swazi journalism and Swazi government and it was quickly spotted and yesterday (23 September 2007) the Times Sunday fell over itself to correct the mistake.
So to recap: the Times Sunday journalists, the Minister of Public Service and Information and ‘the Government’ all failed their stats exam. And as for the reporting of the Economist’s role in all this, it wasn’t the international journalists who were ‘inaccurate’ and ‘one-sided’ and ‘non-factual’. It was the Times Sunday and Minister S’gayoyo himself.
So, one small lack of understanding of a statistic has exposed failings in Swazi journalism, the Swazi ‘Government’ and the Minister of Public Service and Information. Not bad for one morning’s work.
Friday, 24 August 2007
PARLIAMENT INTIMIDATION GOES ON
Fresh evidence of the Swazi Parliament’s attempts to intimidate journalists and media workers emerged this week.
The latest victim is Stan Motsa, director of the government-controlled radio service SBIS. A committee of MPs accused him of abusing his position and the radio station to settle old scores with MPs.
The Minister of Public Service and Information S’gayoyo Magongo has been asked to launch an urgent investigation and to report within two weeks. The minister takes a ‘hands-on’ role in broadcasting in Swaziland and believes that he has the right to make day to day decisions that affect the broadcasting organisations.
The committee also alleges that some news reporters at the SBIS radio and state-controlled Swazi TV have been accepting bribes to promote certain individuals.
The move against Motsa follows closely Parliament’s attempt to sanction the editor of the privately-owned Times Sunday newspaper for expressing himself about the affairs of the House of Assembly in a commentary in his publication. This matter has still to be resolved
The latest victim is Stan Motsa, director of the government-controlled radio service SBIS. A committee of MPs accused him of abusing his position and the radio station to settle old scores with MPs.
The Minister of Public Service and Information S’gayoyo Magongo has been asked to launch an urgent investigation and to report within two weeks. The minister takes a ‘hands-on’ role in broadcasting in Swaziland and believes that he has the right to make day to day decisions that affect the broadcasting organisations.
The committee also alleges that some news reporters at the SBIS radio and state-controlled Swazi TV have been accepting bribes to promote certain individuals.
The move against Motsa follows closely Parliament’s attempt to sanction the editor of the privately-owned Times Sunday newspaper for expressing himself about the affairs of the House of Assembly in a commentary in his publication. This matter has still to be resolved
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