SWAZI DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN HOTS UP

The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) is set to officially launch this Friday (30 July 2010).

This follows a series of meetings and activities to highlight the need for democratic reform in Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and where political parties are banned and branded ‘terrorist entities’.

The SDC has announced it will, in collaboration with its South African counterparts (SDC-SA), labour and civil society partners, be rolling out mass protest activities and intensify civil disobedience that will culminate in the global week of protest slated around Independence Day on 6 September 2010.

The SDC reports that 53 participants representing at least 16 different civil society organizations met two weeks ago and agreed to work with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on human rights issues surrounding the Swaziland Constitution, the Suppression of Terrorism Act, the Public Service Act and the Media Commission Bill.

The SDC also called on the European Union (EU), the United States of America, Denmark, Australia, and ‘all our international labour solidarity network partners’ to either impose or campaign for the immediate imposition of economic sanctions on the present undemocratic regime in Swaziland until it accepts multiparty democracy.

FURY AT NEW SWAZI MEDIA BILL

Even the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, is enraged by the Swazi government’s latest attempt to muzzle the media.

Cabinet has approved a Media Commission Bill that the newspaper says, ‘seeks to regulate or even censor media practitioners if found to have criticised some operations of the state’.

Three cheers for the Observer in voicing its concern, but it is not alone.

Many local media houses feel betrayed because they have been ignored by the government led by Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland. Dlamini has a long history as an enemy of freedom.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa – Swaziland Chapter (MISA) director Comfort Mabuza called the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, ‘double-faced’ because it had not been honest in negotiations with media houses. The government had said negotiations were continuing even though the Cabinet was set to discuss the final Bill.

Mabuza said the new Media Commission Bill was similar to oppressive laws of the former apartheid regime in South Africa, ‘where publications were closed at whim and such would draw the eyes of the international community to the country unnecessarily’.

The Secretary of the Swaziland Editors' Forum Jabu Matsebula also expressed his dismay over the move.

‘This is nothing but censorship. That journalists must have licences before they could practice is a flagrant disrespect of democratic norms. If they give you the licence, what can stop them from revoking it if you criticise certain actions of the status quo?’ he said.

MORE CONTROL OF SWAZI MEDIA

The Swazi Government looks set to push through its plan to take even more control of the media in Swaziland.

Barnabas Dlamini, the kingdom’s illegally-appointed prime minister ,told editors in Swaziland that he did not see any reason why the media should have its own set of rules and regulations when the government could impose one on them.

The following comes from the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

The Government of Swaziland insists on media statutory regulation and has vowed to push through the Media Commission Bill 2007 which seeks to regulate the media by statute. The government recently declined to register the voluntary Media Complaints Commission (MCC), a self-regulatory framework.

On 25 March 2010, the Prime Minister (PM), [Barnabas] Sibusiso Dlamini, answering a question from editors on why government has refused to register the MCC, hinted that there was no need for the MCC as the statutory Media Commission was on its way.

“There is a Media Bill that is being prepared and has been to Cabinet. A few things are now being corrected. We hope the Bill will soon be brought to Parliament by the Minister and it will clarify where the Media Complaints Commission stands. You will also be consulted,” the PM told the editors during a routine monthly breakfast meeting to brief the media about government operations.

The PM's comments confirmed recent reports by lawyers representing the media and helping to register the MCC that government had declined to register the MCC arguing that its objectives overlapped with those of the proposed statutory Media Commission.

The media is currently weighing options of going to court to compel the government to register the MCC. However, the media are yet to meet with the Minister for Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) on the way forward with regards to the MCC.

Source: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

GOVERNMENT BID TO MUZZLE MEDIA

MISA has attacked Swaziland’s new anti-media government bill as unconstitutional and an attempt to muzzle the media.

The Media Commission Bill is an attempt to take Swaziland back to the dark ages, it says.

MISA (the Media Institute of Southern Africa) Swaziland Chapter says that the new bill that purports to be a defence of journalistic ethical standards is unnecessary because media houses in the kingdom have been in lengthy discussions on finding ways to introduce self-regulation.

As it introduced the new bill the government also said it would be scrapping five of the six media bills it drafted in 2007 that have been widely discussed by stakeholders.

The Media Commission Bill will set up a statutory Media Council to oversee the media in Swaziland.

MISA says this is ‘process is taking us back to the dark and oppressive regimes’ of the past and the bill is designed to ‘muzzle the media and exert undue control on matters of freedom of expression’.

MISA says media houses in Swaziland have already made it clear to the government that any statutory media council will not be acceptable.

MISA says the new bill contravenes S24 of the Swaziland Constitution on freedom of expression and contradicts the order of Parliament on self-regulation made in 1997.

To read the full response from MISA, click here.