received the approval of media stakeholders as Swaziland took an important step towards improving the country’s stifled media landscape. However, the Bills, with the exception of the Media Commission Bill which was rejected, were approved with amendments. The approved Bills were the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill 2007; the Swaziland Broadcasting Bill 2007; the Swaziland Public Broadcasting Corporation Bill 2007; the Books and Newspapers (Amendment) Bill 2007 and the National Film Bill 2007. At a workshop the government facilitated to allow the media to input into the Bills, the media made several recommendations. One of these was the FOI and the Privacy Bills should be separated. Currently The FOI includes privacy provisions. The media felt including privacy provisions in the FOI Bill will risk restricting access to information. The Bills are yet to be taken to other sectors of the Swazi society for wider consultations. The final drafts will be tabled before a national stakeholder conference which would be the final lap of consultations before the Bills are piloted in parliament. The Ministry of Public Service and Information, which is driving the process of the Bills with the assistance of Commonwealth experts, aims to pilot at least one of the Bills in Parliament this year. Stakeholders currently feel the FOI Bill should receive priority. • ALERT Date: March 22, 2007 Persons: Paul Loffler, Times of Swaziland newspaper, Ken Rowley Violation: Threatened On March 22 2007, the Times of Swaziland newspaper was forced to retract an article that criticised the King. The freelance features editor who published the article has been fired. In a worst form of harassment, the publisher, Paul Loffler, was summoned to the palace by the King on March 19, 2007, where the newspaper was reportedly threatened with closure. As a compromise, the newspaper agreed to retract the ‘offending’ article and dismiss the features editor. The article, published on March 18, 2007, was sourced from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic report on Swaziland which was published on the internet. The King was reportedly angered by certain phrases used in the article which referred to him as authoritarian, was a big spender who had a large family. He believed such phrases undermined his status. In its editorial on March 22, 2007, the Times said in part: The Times of Swaziland group of newspapers wishes to unreservedly apologise to His Majesty King Mswati III for an article that appeared in the Times Sunday of March 18, 2007. “The article was disparaging to the person of His Majesty in its content, greatly embarrassed him and should not have passed editorial scrutiny. “Our newspapers take great care with matters regarding the Monarch, being conscious always of the unbreakable link of the King with the Nation. What occurred is reprehensible and we will renew our vigilance in editorial matters with utmost vigour.” Times Managing Editor, Martin Dlamini, told MISA Swaziland that they had to take an internal decision to apologise to the King to avoid any further trouble. He said they would publish the same apology again on March 25. On the dismissed features editor, Dlamini said they had to take a management decision to stop the editor, Ken Rowley, from freelancing for the newspaper. Also affected is Rowley’s popular weekly column which has also been stopped. • ALERT Date: March 7, 2007 Persons: Times of Swaziland newspaper Violation: Victory So This Is Democracy? 2007 -95- Media Institute of Southern Africa