SWAZILAND GVT BLOCKS INFORMATION

It’s easier to get blood out of a stone than get information from the Swazi Government.

That seems to be the conclusion of a report into access to information undertaken by the kingdom’s leading media freedom group.

The office of the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) was rated the most secretive and inaccessible to information seekers.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa Swaziland Chapter (MISA) said attempts to access information were met with hostility and uncooperativeness.

The DPM’s office was one of five institutions randomly surveyed for a month earlier this year to determine the levels of access to information.

Others were the Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Agriculture, NERCHA and the Swaziland Electricity Company. They were rated based on information available on their website and responses to questionnaires.

MISA yesterday (28 September 2010) presented the findings of its report ‘2010 Most Transparent and Secretive Public Institutions’ in Southern Africa. The DPM’s office was awarded the 2010 Golden Padlock Award of the Most Secretive Public Institution in Swaziland.

MISA Information Officer Michael Motsa told a media conference the DPM webpage was the ‘worst webpage of government ministries. It only had one page with basic information and a big picture of the DPM. The links provided did not have any information.’

Overall, the DPM’s office received a rating of zero out of a possible 20 points.

The survey reminds us that in Swaziland people are not allowed access to even the most basic information – no one will even confirm the number of wives King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has.

There is clearly a need for more access to information in Swaziland. It is not a free country and even though the constitution enshrines freedom of expression, people are not able to discuss openly many topics. Nor are people able to hold their government to account. One reason for this is that the people are not entitled to get information from government, public bodies and suchlike institutions.



In 2007, the Swazi Parliament issued a draft bill on freedom of information. The first objective of this bill was to ‘Encourage a culture of openness, transparency and accountability in public bodies by providing for access to information held by these bodies in order to enable every citizen to fully exercise and protect their constitutional right of freedom of expression.’

And what happened to that Bill? Don’t ask me it’s a secret.

SWAZIS BLASTED ON MEDIA FREEDOM

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has roundly condemned continuing censorship and the lack of media freedom in Swaziland.

Following its annual meeting last week MISA issued a statement urging the Swazi Government to ensure ‘that fundamental and international standards on media and freedom of expression rights are adhered to. These include Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Windhoek Declaration, the African Charter on Broadcasting, the Banjul Declaration on Freedom of Expression in Africa and Section 24 of the Swazi Constitution’.

MISA also called upon the Swazi Government to engage media players ‘in a process of dialogue to review restrictive media laws that infringe on media and freedom of expression rights.’

It said, ‘Such laws include among others, the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008 and Electronic Evidence Act 2009.’

MISA went on to express concern on the state of the media and freedom of expression rights in Swaziland especially the censorship and intimidation of the media and journalists.

‘We, therefore, call upon the government to ensure the safety of Swazi media workers who face harassment be it by security forces or traditional authorities and drop any legal cases against media workers or citizens charged for freely expressing themselves.

‘We also call the Swazi government to embark on a process of reforms in the management of the State owned media by guaranteeing and ensuring editorial independence of such media.’

MISA saw some little thing to praise the Swazi Government for – its effort to implement a freedom of information law.

Clutching at straws the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch – put this headline up on its report of the MISA AGM

MISA commends Govt on working towards access to information laws