Media freedom in Swaziland / eSwatini suffered another
blow with a High Court decision to ban a newspaper from reporting on the people
behind the Farmers Bank that was recently set up in the kingdom.
The Central Bank of Eswatini brought an urgent
application against the Times of Swaziland newspaper to prevent it
using information contained in a confidential report on the licence application
of Farmers Bank.
Judge Nkosinathi Maseko supported the central bank. A
review of the case by Carmel
Rickard, published
by Legal
Brief on Thursday (9 May 2019), stated, ‘Investigative
journalist Welcome Dlamini had obtained the report, prepared by the central
bank’s financial regulation department, while he was working on a story about
Farmers Bank. The central bank maintained that the law provided for strict
security and confidentiality about all its business and that for an employee or
former employee to have ‘leaked’ the document to the media was unlawful.
‘Approached by Dlamini for comment about the
circumstances of the licence approval, the governor of the central bank, Majozi
Sithole, established that Dlamini had a copy of the report. Sithole told him
the document was strictly confidential and required Dlamini to undertake not to
publish his intended report. When no undertaking was forthcoming, the central
bank successfully applied for an interim order barring the newspaper from
publishing. The matter was fully argued soon afterwards.’
High Court judge Maseko in
his judgement noted Sithole’s claim that the planned
publication was an unlawful breach of the central bank's privacy and ‘would
cause irreparable harm’ to the central bank, Farmers Bank and to the ‘integrity
of the financial systems of the country’. Confidentiality had to be preserved ‘at
all costs’ because of the potential consequences for banking in the country ‘and
beyond’ of any disclosure.
The newspaper argued that the central bank should also
protect the kingdom from ‘unscrupulous business people’. Investigations into
the people wanting to set up a banking business were thus surely a matter of
importance and of ‘utmost public interest’.
Maseko ruled the law required the work of the central
bank to be highly guarded and surrounded by ‘utmost secrecy and confidentiality’
with criminal sanctions for any breach. He granted, ‘with costs’, a restraining
interdict, and barred the paper from publishing ‘information contained in a
confidential report on Farmers Bank's licence application’, Rickard reported.
The court ruling is only one example of the harassment
journalists in Swaziland face. In
the past year alone journalists have been beaten
by state forces and teachers
as they try to cover public events. Two were detained at the Qatar Embassy in
Mbabane, the Swazi capital, when they went to question a diplomat. A government
minister called for a journalist to be arrested
for taking photographs of ministerial cars parked in a public place. A former
newspaper editor was questioned by police about allegations he had interviewed
members of banned political organisations back in 2011.
See also
Journalists
in Swaziland endure year of harassment as they try to do their jobs
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