Safety & Wellness

SA NATIONAL EDITORS’ FORUM (SANEF) PRESS STATEMENT: SANEF condemns Swazi prince’s ‘death threat’

The SA National Editors’ Forum is shocked by the “death threat’’ issued by a Swazi prince who was reported at the weekend as threatening journalists who “write bad things about the country will die”. This was directed at journalists who have been critical of the conduct of the country’s leadership.
During a July 21 public forum called the Smart Partnership National Dialogue in Manzini, Prince Mahlaba, brother of Swaziland’s absolute ruler King Mswati III, was quoted as saying: “I want to warn the media to bury things that have the potential of undermining the country rather than publish all and everything even when such reports are harmful to the country’s international image. Journalists who continue to write bad things about the country will die.”

The prince also accused the media of peddling lies, saying: “It’s a fact that journalists earn their living by writing lies and if they do not write the lies then their source of livelihood is threatened and this is fact and beyond debate.’‘

The prince’s accusations against journalism about how they operate are outrageous and are contemptuously rejected, but the threat to kill journalists who write critically about the governance and leadership of the country is extremely menacing and designed to intimidate journalists and their publications. It cannot be tolerated.

Prince Mahlaba is a senior member of the highly influential royal advisory council, the Swazi National Council Standing Committee (SNC) and thus can be regarded as voicing a government view. It calls on Swaziland’s king and government to repudiate the prince’s view and in the absence of such an unequivocal statement will report the threat to the Southern Africa Development Community, the African Union and the United Nations. Swaziland is a member of all three bodies which put forward strong codes relating to the treatment of the media and media freedom for member countries to follow.
SANEF will call on those organisations to take appropriate action against Swaziland and, meanwhile, extends its support to its colleagues in Swaziland to stand up to this terror threat.

SANEF also expresses its concern about the influence this murderous threat will have on the Swaziland public in their conduct towards the media and calls on it to avoid attacking the media.

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Twitter: @SAEditorsForum

Email: [email protected]

Website: SANEF

Statement by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) – New clamp down on foreign media in Zimbabwe

The SA National Editors’ Forum is concerned at a new clamp down on foreign and local media in Zimbabwe despite promises by the government that the country’s repressive media laws were under review and would be amended to restore media freedom.

Several incidents of repression and harassment of journalists and other association with the media have occurred since the beginning of the year.

A Mexican journalist, despite have been given appropriate accreditation by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, was arrested by state security agents on February 12 while attempting to film tourist attractions in the town of Masvingo. He was reportedly released after the Tourism Minister intervened.

On January 18, freelance journalist Andrison Manyere was reportedly arrested while covering a demonstration for better education by the organization Women and Men of Zimbabwe (WOZA) though he was released the same day.

On February 11, action was taken against the distributors in Zimbabwe of the independent Zimbabwean newspaper based in London. Two directors of the Zimbabwean’s new distribution company, Adquest, were arrested for publishing “false statements’’ allegedly contained in an article in an edition of the paper published in January. They were charged under Section 31 (a) (iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification & Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23, with publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the State. Earlier they had been detained but after questioning and producing papers showing the paper had been legally imported were released. No date has been set for their appearance in court.

On February 16 Lovemore Manjonjo, a staff writer of the African Workers Organiser, a monthly produced by a communist activity group in South Africa, was arrested in Harare and copies of the publication he had in his possession were confiscated. He was released and warned to appear in court on February 22 on a charge of assaulting a policeman. He claimed he had been manhandled.

Another journalist, freelancer Stanley Kwenda, who received a death threat from a man claiming to be a police officer fled the country. The death threat, according to the Zimbabwean newspaper, was linked to an article published in that paper.

SANEF protests at these attempts by the Zimbabwean authorities to stifle reporting and the flow of information about the country both internally and for foreign consumption. It calls on the Zimbabwe government to respect the principles under which the unity government was formed – one of those being the removal of restrictions on the media and the restoration of Press Freedom – and to end the persistent harassment of the media.

Issued by: SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF)

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Twitter: @SAEditorsForum

Email: [email protected]

Website: SANEF

The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is outraged at reports that journalists in Mpumalanga are on a hit list targeting corruption busters in the province.

The existence of the hit list first surfaced in Sunday World of January 10 and has been repeated in Friday’s Mail & Guardian. So far two provincial government officials said to have been on the list have been murdered. Samuel Mpatlanyane, Mpumalanga’s sports and culture department head of communications, was shot dead by assassins during the night last week.

Vusi Shongwe, the province’s sports and culture minister, has blamed the murder on the same people who killed Mbombela municipality speaker Jimmy Mohlala. Mohlala was similarly executed at home in front of his son last January. He was a witness in a disciplinary hearing concerning financial mismanagement related to the Mbombela Stadium, a Fifa 2010 World Cup Venue.

The murder and threatened murder of potential witnesses and journalists puts a nasty twist to South Africa’s struggle against corruption.

SANEF deplores the loss of life so far and urges anybody with information about the alleged hit list to inform the police without delay.

The police should leave no stone unturned in their effort to bring those behind the barbaric acts of murder and intimidation to book.

It is against this background that the editors’ forum pledges its full support for Philani Makhanya, the news editor of The Mercury, who has laid a charge of intimidation against a politically-connected Durban businessman for allegedly threatening his safety.

Interestingly, the prominent, high-spending businessman is a friend of Bheki Cele, the national commissioner of police. As Angela Quintal, the editor of The Mercury, says in her supporting affidavit, the newspaper, like all media, has “a special duty to uphold the principle of freedom of expression and to eliminate dishonesty, news suppression and censorship”.