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Swaziland police should stop intimidating and harassing local journalists for critically reporting on King Mswati III and should allow them to write freely without the threat of treason charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On April 23, police officers raided the home of Eugene Dube, the publisher and publisher of the privately owned news website. Swati Newsweekand confiscated his three mobile phones, a laptop, and work documents, according to local news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ by phone and messaging app.
Officers took Dube to a local police station in Nhlangano, the capital of Swaziland’s southern district, where he was interrogated for approximately seven hours about two recent articles in Swati Newsweek He criticized Mswati III, and then brought him before a magistrate to record a statement, he said.
Dube told CPJ that he was released without charge, but said officers did not return his devices or documents.
On April 24, a police officer in Matsapha went to the home of Mfomfo Nkhambule, a Swati Newsweek The journalist who wrote one of the articles Dube was questioned about, took him to a local police station and questioned him for two hours about the articles, Nkhambule told CPJ via a messaging app and a phone call.
Dube told CPJ that the police could not find Mthobisi Ntjangase, the journalist who had written the other article about the king.
“Swazi police should stop threatening journalists like Eugene Dube and Mfomfo Nkhambule for writing critically about King Mswati III, and should defend their right to freely report,” said Angela Quintal, coordinator of CPJ’s Africa program. “The era of ‘the king can do no wrong’ has long been relegated to the annals of history, and the police should focus their resources on fighting real criminals, not the press.”
Journalists said they were questioned about an April 8 Nkhambule opinion piece, titled “Reckless King on the Health of the Swazis,” who accused the government of not responding adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an article from 14 April Ntjangase, based on an interview with the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland, a radical political group, who said “it is possible to eliminate the king.”
During his interrogation, police asked Dube why he gave the Economic Freedom Fighters a platform and insisted that the monarch was immune to criticism, saying he could face charges of high treason, Dube said.
At the request of the police, Dube wrote a statement explaining the stories, and wrote that he was trying to alert the Swazi people and the government to flaws in the official COVID-19 strategy, he said.
After his release, police warned Dube that his investigation was still ongoing and said they would return if he continued to criticize the king, Dube said, adding that they kept their devices for further investigation.
Left: Mfomfo Nkhambule (Photo: Kirsten Nkhambule). Right: Eugene Dube (Photo by Dube).
Left: Mfomfo Nkhambule (Photo: Kirsten Nkhambule). Right: Eugene Dube (Photo by Dube).
Nkhambule told CPJ that the police questioning was “exhausting” and said that the officers “wanted him to understand that he had made a mistake in writing about the king.”
Officers threatened him with jail and treason charges for his writings, and said they would return once their investigations were completed.
Nkhambule said officers previously interrogated him at police headquarters in Manzini on March 12 and interrogated him for four hours about articles he had written about the monarch last year for another online publication, Swaziland News. He said officers confiscated his laptop and two cell phones during that arrest and had not yet returned them.
During that interrogation, an officer threatened to throw Nkhambule out of the second-story window and said that the police would allege that he had attempted to escape, he said.
Dube said he and Nkhambule hope to raise funds for their legal support and to ensure that their laptops and phones are returned and that the police stop harassing them.
Police Commissioner William Tsintsibala Dlamini on April 24 threatened that authorities would criticize journalists who wrote negatively about Mswati III and said the law would take its course, the private weekly publication. Independent news reported.
In a statement sent to CPJ, government spokesman Sabelo Dlamini alleged that Dube operated an unregistered media outlet and denied that journalists were prosecuted for criticizing the king.
The statement said that anyone reporting “false news” about COVID-19 would be prosecuted.
Under regulations passed last month, anyone who finds out that spreading false news about the virus can face up to five years in prison or a fine of 20,000 emalangeni ($ 1,082),
His statement said those regulations were in line with others in the region.
“In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that people trust truthful and transparent information from their government, the media, and anyone with access to communication tools,” he wrote. “We find that journalists with integrity and ethical practices have no problem complying with these regulations.”
