SWAZI PROPAGANDA DISGUISED AS NEWS

A Swaziland newspaper has made an outspoken attack on Swazi trade unions, claiming they are on their knees.

The Swazi News (12 April 2008), in what purports to be a news report, but is in fact a piece of propaganda, tears the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) to pieces.

Without offering its readers a single source for its information, the Swazi News claims the SFTU is a ‘toothless dog’.

The newspaper reports, ‘The once fearless SFTU is down on its knees.

‘It took the once mighty and vibrant labour movement less than 10 years to crumble, leaving the workers vulnerable to their employers. It once boasted 83,000 membership but today that has been brought to more or less 30,000.

‘This effectively means SFTU has lost over 53,000 members.

‘The chronic downfall has been attributed to several factors of which some have been witnessed by the affiliates from puberty stage until they toppled the federation with no one actually attempting to solve the problem.’

The report goes on the state that the ‘last days of the mighty SFTU’ were in 1996/7 when there was a mass stay-away of workers, ‘forcing the economy into the mortuary. It never recovered.’

The report goes on, ‘The Federation’s Secretary General, Jan Sithole was idolised by every worker.’ It then attacks Sithole for running a one-man show at the union.

What disturbs me most about this report is its dishonesty. You don’t have to be a supporter of trade unions to see that what the Swazi News published was not a piece of disinterested journalism. The reporter (and it was written by a reporter, not a comment writer) has simply given his own opinion of matters. Nobody else is consulted and no verifiable facts are given in the report.

I wrote only last week about the Swazi News and its coverage of the election and how it was biased against the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) referring to a ‘mockery press briefing’ and calling by the board ‘illegally appointed’.

It did it again this week in a front-page report about Chief Gija Dlamini, the Chairman of the EBC. In a news report, it called Dlamini the ‘illegally appointed chairman’ and went on to say that Dlamini said he would not resign his day job to concentrate on the work of the Commission.

This is how the Swazi News report put it, ‘Dlamini, presumably out of arrogance coupled with ignorance says he does not see the need to quit his job.’ Perhaps I should point out that the only ‘arrogance’ and ‘ignorance’ on display here is from the journalists at the Swazi News.

There is a code of ethical conduct for journalists in Swaziland. Article 1 of The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) Code of Conduct makes it crystal clear that it is

‘the duty of every journalist is to write and report, adhere to and faithfully defend, the truth. A journalist should make adequate inquiries, do cross-checking of facts in order to provide the public with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information.’

The Swazi News has clearly not met Article 1.

The Swazi News must be very careful. It is gaining the reputation, not as a newspaper, but as a propaganda sheet.

Getting back to the article on the SFTU. The reporter played the oldest trick in the book for biased journalists. Having set up a false scenario (the crumbling trade union movement, toothless dog and such like) in the minds of the readers he asked trade unionists to respond. This meant trade unionists weren’t given a chance to talk about what they saw as their role and what trade unions might be able to do for working people in Swaziland, instead they had to accept the agenda set by the Swazi News and defend themselves.

The fall in the number of trade union members is easy to explain. Anyone who knows the history of trade unionism in any country in the world (developed or developing) knows that union membership is cyclical. Put simply, that mean when the economy is doing badly (as Swaziland’s is) people are out of work or are poorly paid, they tend not to be members of unions. When times are good and people are in work, they belong to trade unions.

If you add to this the political climate in Swaziland that is hostile to people forming political parties and trade unions it is no wonder that unions find it difficult to recruit. But if you look at the effort police officers and prison warders have made to form trade unions in Swaziland over the past year or so, you cannot be in any doubt that people do understand the benefits of trade unions and very much want to join them.

Let the Swazi News report on that.

See also
SWAZI ELECTION DATE ABSURDITY
SWAZI POLICE REFUSE TO ARREST

BIASED REPORTING OF REED DANCE

This year’s annual Swazi Reed Dance (Umhlanga) takes place this coming weekend (2-3 September 2007) and the Swazi media have gone into overdrive to cover the preparations.

The annual ceremony at which women from all over the kingdom dance half naked in front of the king is controversial, not least because of the way women generally are treated in Swaziland. Swazi culture dictates that women are ‘minors’ with no legal rights and who are effectively ‘owned’ by their menfolk (usually fathers and husbands).

There is also the expectation (often not met) each year that the king will choose one of the maidens to be his next wife.

Yesterday’s newspapers had reports of ‘maidens’ (mostly young women) signing up to take part. Depending on the newspaper you read there were 50,000 or 55,000 people registered.

The controversial nature of the event means that news media need to be cautious in their reports. The Swazi Observer showed no caution in this report published yesterday (29 August 2007).

The report headlined, ‘Swazi maidens celebrate virginity’ had the following opening paragraphs:

‘This year’s Umhlanga (Reed dance) ceremony commenced yesterday for thousands of proud Swazi maidens to celebrate their virginity.

‘Those who doubt themselves will hide their bodies and shy away from the traditional event.

‘Others, who will boycott the event, are those that have been polluted by perverted teachings of foreign preachers, who have made sure that Swazi culture and traditions are undermined while their pockets are bulging with money collected as tithes from gullible Swazis.

‘Luckily, God has been on the Swazi side and not much has been achieved to turn people away from their culture.

‘This year will be no different as the best of Swazi colour will be there for display for nations of the world to watch and cherish. The Reed dance has been described by many observers as the most colourful cultural event in the world.’

The report then goes on in similar fashion for many more paragraphs.

In case you are in doubt this report appeared on a page of National News, and not as an opinion column.

If you take the report at face value you are led to believe that the ceremony is uncontroversial, that every woman in Swaziland wants to take part and only those who are not virgins or who have been brainwashed will stay way. According to the report, women who have been ‘polluted’ by ‘foreign preachers’ will not attend the ceremony.

The news report is not a ‘news report’ at all. If you take a very basic definition of ‘news’, news must be about something that is currently happening (which this report is) and it needs to be based on facts and also have some kind of balance when matters of controversy are involved. The report fails in both of these last tests.

Article one of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists Code of Conduct states that a journalist should provide the public with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information. This report fails article one comprehensively.

The ‘Swazi maidens celebrate virginity’ report fails the news test, but any regular reader of the Swazi Observer would not be too surprised that it is biased in its reporting. The Observer supports ‘traditional’ culture in Swaziland and is after all owned by a company that is in turn effectively controlled by the Swazi Royal Family.

The Observer is also big on fundamentalist Christianity and enjoys moralising, as this paragraph from the report testifies,

‘Taking part in the Reed dance is the pride of each and every well-meaning
Swazi maiden, who prides herself on keeping her body pure from earthly
contamination like early sex and outright promiscuity.’

We have many more days of media coverage of the Reed Dance to look forward to but let’s hope that the standard of reporting gets better.

To help the Observer a little: there are a number of ‘rules’ about news reporting that journalism students or professional journalists who are just starting out learn from day one. Among them are that in a news story you should:

- Stick to the facts.
- Do not give your own opinion.
- Keep the report simple and avoid adjectives.
- Act as an observer to the event, not as an advocate.
- Do not get too close to the story.


I hope that is of some assistance.