According to eNews Africa editor, Chris Maroleng, police in Swaziland have detained two journalists working for E-TV. It wasn’t immediately clear why they had been detained, but it was understood that the crew were on their way to report about marches taking place in the country.
eNews Africa editor, Chris Maroleng, said earlier:
I can confirm that two of our journalists were detained at a roadblock outside Mbabane shortly after 9am today. What we are aware of is that the two are currently being questioned at a police station in the capital. They have been told that they are not under arrest, they are just being detained.
Journalist Tumaole Mohlaoli, and cameraman Meshack Dube, both had their passports confiscated.
No reason was given for this.
Maroleng said eNews Africa was monitoring the developments:
We are committed to media freedom and we hope that the Swazi authorities will respect the basic human rights of our crew, who were deployed on a legitimate story to cover the activities in Swaziland.
It was unclear if their equipment was also seized, but the Swaziland Democracy Campaign thought it had been.
The Swaziland Democracy Campaign – a coalition of progressive organisations inside Swaziland – condemned the incident. It said the journalists were first detained at the Oshoek border post before being escorted to Mbabane, where their equipment was confiscated:
We demand freedom of expression and the right for journalists to freely cover the events in Swaziland, so that the world can know that the myth of a peaceful country, unquestioningly accepting royal autocracy in the name of Swazi culture, is a fallacy and lie. The eTV crew was on its way to report about the marches taking place in Swaziland to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the 1973 king’s decree that… enslaved and imprisoned Swazis.
The report of the detention follows the announcement from Swazi officials that a law will shortly be introduced to stop people from criticising its autocratic ruler, King Mswati III, on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
