10
eSwatini National
Police Commissioner,
William Tsintsibala
Dlamini
CREDIT: INDEPENDENT
NEWS

of harassing journalists. In July 2019, detectives
investigating the former intelligence boss, Isaac
Kgosi on allegations that he unlawfully revealed
the identity of intelligence agents, raided the
home of Tsaone Basimane Botlhe, a political
reporter for Mmegi media house, confiscating all
her computers and mobile phones. She was being
investigated for allegedly receiving “pictures of
DISS agents”, cautioned against informing her
editor of the raid, and her colleagues threatened
with arrest for visiting her home.
This incident was strongly condemned by
the Botswana Media and Allied Workers Union
(BOMAWU) who expressed their worry regarding
continued harassment of journalists by law
enforcement agencies.
In April 2020, the Committee to Protect
Journalists appealed to Eswatini police to stop
intimidating and harassing local journalists for
reporting critically on King Mswati III and his
government, following a police raid on the home
and confistication of three mobile phones, a
laptop and work documents of Eugene Dube, the
editor and publisher of the privately owned news
website Swati Newsweek.
The National Police Commissioner, William
Tsintsibala Dlamini stated that the police would
come down hard on journalists writing negatively

about the monarch. Some of these journalists
have fled to South Africa, including Zweli Martin
Dlamini, who is on the police’s wanted list for
his March 2020 reports that King Mswati III had
contracted Covid-19 and was in self isolation, and
other articles portraying the contrast between the
king’s lavish lifestyle and that of the impoverished
citizens.
In Malawi, MISA documented 20 attacks on
journalists between 2019 and the first half of
2020, prompting the media organisation to write
an open letter to then President Peter Mutharika
and the Inspector General of Police, highlighting
violations which threatened the media’s work,
and calling for the adoption of measures to ensure
safety and security for journalists.
The security incidents included the May
2020 attack by thugs on a vehicle that Zodiak
Broadcasting Station (ZBS) and Times Group
reporters were travelling in during the then Tonse
Alliance running mate Saulos Chilima’s tour of
Mulanje and Phalombe. Cameraperson Hezekiah
Namonde of ZBS suffered hand injuries during
the assault whilst reporters Emmanuel Chibwana
of ZBS and Jameson Chauluka and Lazarus Nedi
of Times Group escaped unhurt.
In the same month, another group of thugs
assaulted Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)

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