(MISA/IFEX) – Swaziland police raided the kingdom’s only independent news magazine, the “Nation”, on Tuesday 22 May 2001 in apparent defiance of the country’s High Court. The uniformed policemen insisted that the outspoken magazine was still technically banned and said they had instructions to confiscate all copies of its June edition. Policemen reportedly confiscated over […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Swaziland police raided the kingdom’s only independent news magazine, the “Nation”, on Tuesday 22 May 2001 in apparent defiance of the country’s High Court.
The uniformed policemen insisted that the outspoken magazine was still technically banned and said they had instructions to confiscate all copies of its June edition. Policemen reportedly confiscated over 5,000 copies of the publication.
The “Nation” is one of two independent publications banned by Swaziland Public Service and Information Minister Mtonzima Dlamini on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, in an apparent clampdown on journalists critical of the kingdom’s monarchist system of government.
Dlamini banned the “Nation” and weekly newspaper “Swazi Guardian” in an extraordinary gazette, citing Section 3 of the 1968 Proscribed Publications Act, which gives his office unlimited powers to ban or suspend publications that do not conform with “Swazi morality and ideals.”
Registrar of Newspapers Sam Malinga also ordered both publications to cease publication because they had failed to comply with registration requirements. The newspaper was to take its case to the High Court on Wednesday 23 May.
High Court Judge Jacobus Annandale has already ruled in the “Nation”‘s favour, saying on Friday 18 May that Minister Dlamini had been wrong to issue a blanket ban on the magazine without referring the matter to court or at least supplying detailed reasons for the ban.
Swaziland Attorney General Phesheya Dlamini has appealed Annandale’s ruling but concedes that the “Nation” is technically allowed to publish unless his appeal succeeds.
Both the “Guardian” and the “Nation” are known to support the multi-party democracy movement and have been critical of King Mswati III’s decision to govern by decree.
All political parties have been banned in Swaziland since the suspension of the kingdom’s constitution in 1973.
Mswati’s handpicked Parliament has also recently demanded that a proposed Media Council Bill be tabled for adoption. The Media Bill was deferred five years ago following international condemnation for allegedly seeking to gag and control journalists by requiring them to register with a government controlled media council.
(Source: African Eye News Service)
