DEATH THREAT TO NEWSPAPER EDITOR

The editor of one of Swaziland’s independent newspapers and a senior reporter have received death threats because of a story they are working on involving the kingdom’s security forces.

The editor of the Times Sunday Innocent Maphalala and senior reporter on the paper Mfanukhona Nkambule have reportedly received threats of grievous bodily harm, ‘possibly even leading to death’, according to the Times of Swaziland newspaper.

It reported on Friday (13 January 2017), ‘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.’

The Times, which is a companion paper to the Times Sunday, gave no further details of the nature of the story.

It reported, ‘Further attempts to engage the Times Managing Editor, Martin Dlamini, and the Publisher, Paul Loffler, also failed to convince this publication to drop the story.  Even though the people who issued the threats remain faceless, they threatened that should the story see the light of day, the duo risked being eliminated.’

It added, ‘The warning was conveyed directly to the Times Sunday editor by a concerned citizen, who is a highly-placed government official and has insight to what could be going on behind the scenes. This citizen, who will not be named, pleaded with the editor to drop the story if he wanted to live.’

FACEBOOK TELLS TRUTH MEDIA WON’T

Swaziland journalists can no longer hide stories of public importance to please friends and advertisers, a top media union official said.

This is because social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs are exposing what is really going on in the kingdom.

Mfanukhona Nkambule, President of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ), told a meeting in Mbabane to mark World Press Freedom Day (3 May 2011), ‘We shall see whatever you hide in Facebook or Twitter. They will also tell the outside world that they decided to post the story on Facebook because the mainstream media has failed to do it.’

This meant the Internet posed a challenge to the media in Swaziland, but it was not a competitor.

The Swazi Observer reported Nkambule saying that journalists cannot compete with social networking, ‘because the people behind social media are the very sources who give us those juicy stories we print and broadcast in our outlets.’

He said the social media was where breaking stories were being posted these days.

See also

SWAZILAND JOURNALISTS A DISGRACE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/05/swaziland-journalists-disgrace.html