on October 10, 2007. The Select Committee has said in its report: “It is the finding of the committee that media stakeholders have dragged their feet in establishing a self-regulatory Media Complaints Commission that was recommended by the House of Assembly Select Committee in 1997. • ALERT Date: July 9, 2007 Persons: Bheki Makhubu Violation: Censored On July 9 2007, the editor of the privately owned Nation magazine, Bheki Makhubu, was sued for E3.5 million [approx. US$ 500 000] by a Member of Parliament for alleged defamation of character. The MP, Marwick Khumalo, an ex journalist and also a member of the Pan African Parliament, claims to have been defamed by an article Makhubu wrote and published in the June edition of the Nation magazine. In the article in question Makhubu alleged that Khumalo and two of his business cronies who include a Cabinet Minister tried to win a government pharmaceutical tender through corrupt means. The tender, for the supply of drugs to government hospitals and clinics, was eventually suspended resulting in the near collapse of the health sector as government health services grounded to a halt with the hospitals and clinics unable to provide drugs to patients. Parliament then instituted a probe which fingered Khumalo as one of those responsible for the crisis through alleged corrupt means. Makhubu, in his article in the June edition of his magazine, criticised the MP and his business associates for their alleged corrupt behaviour and even dared them to sue him for his opinion. • ALERT Date: June 24, 2007 Persons: Media in Swaziland, Albert Masango Violation: Censored On June 24 2007, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Njabulo Mabuza, banned the media from accessing the Mbabane Government Hospital, Swaziland biggest hospital, in search for news. This followed a series of exposés by the media into alleged perpetual negligence by hospital staff resulting in the death of a young girl the previous week who died after having been bitten by a rabid dog. The media alleged the child died because of alleged neglect by hospital staff and the shortage of drugs, a perennial problem which has brought huge embarrassment to the Ministry of Health and has further caused the health sector to gradually crumble. Minister Mabuza issued a government memo to hospital administration to deny the media any access into hospital premises without his permission. On June 21, 2007, the Times of Swaziland newspaper experienced the effects of the Minister’s censorship order when its photographer, Albert Masango, was denied access to the hospital without express approval by the Minister. Hospital security harassed and pulled Masango out of the hospital premises and carried him out to the gate. Amid Masango’s protestations, the security personnel stressed that in terms of the new media access ‘law’, permission has to be sought from either the Minister or his Principal Secretary before the media could be allowed to cover anything inside the hospital premises. • ALERT Date: June 19, 2007 Persons: Nation magazine Violation: Censored So This Is Democracy? 2007 -93- Media Institute of Southern Africa