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Friday 7 August 2009

NEW SENATE BID TO CENSOR MEDIA

True to form Swaziland senators want to censor the media following news that one of its own has been found guilty of bringing the house of parliament into disrepute.


As I reported yesterday (6 August 2009), a senate select committee recommended that Senator Ndileka Dlamini should be suspended for three months after she was involved in a public fight with Senate President Gelane Zwane.


But, the senate doesn’t want ordinary Swazis to know about this.


The senate had tried to intimidate the media after they originally reported the fight in March 2009.A select committee was set up to look into ways of restricting how the media reports on parliament.


In the latest development the senators told the media to stop reporting on the case until the whole senate had a chance to discuss the committee’s recommendation.


Again, not for the first time senators say the media are irresponsible because they get their facts wrong.


Senator Khephu Cindzi, introducing a motion told the Senate, ‘There are words in the media reports that are not in the Senate probe report and I therefore kindly ask that the media should stop writing about the report until the time is right.’


Cindzi then went on to say, quite inaccurately, ‘This report, Madam President, is similar to a court case where you cannot write about an issue until it is heard before court.’


The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reported Senate supported the motion and its President Zwane told the media to stop publishing the report’s contents.

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