H.E. Barnabas S. Dlamini
Prime Minister
c/o H.E. Mary Madzandza Kanya
Ambassador of Swaziland to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Swaziland
1712 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: (202) 234.8254
Your Excellency:
We are writing on behalf of the Overseas Press Club of America, an organization of international journalists with nearly seventy years of experience defending freedom of the press.
It has come to our attention that at least two publications founded recently in Swaziland have been threatened with closure for not registering as publications with the Swazi government. One of the publications, a business magazine named, CAP Magazine, established last year, was told by the office of your government’s Director of Information (also the registrar of newspapers) to produce a registration license, or face closure.
The magazine editor, Shongiseni Mamba, said his publication was unaware of the requirement and that his magazine would register promptly to avoid the government threat. He said he felt that there was more to the government close-down threat than simply the failure to register.
We also understand that another new publication, Mbambambamba, a newspaper published in the vernacular and launched only in January, has also been threatened with being shut down for failing to register with the government agency.
Your Excellency, we hope that your government’s ministry is not using the registration requirement as an indirect method of controlling the press. To do so would be a violation of the principles of civil rights and freedom of expression which, we understand, were part of the basic principles of democracy on which Swaziland was founded.
We hope to hear from your government in the near future that these problems have now been resolved without injury to the rights of journalists and your news-interested citizenry in Swaziland.
Respectfully yours,
George Bookman
Norman A. Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.M. King Mswati III
P.O. Box 1
Kwaluseni
Kingdom of Swaziland
Fax: (011.268) 518.4468
H.E. Mary Madzandza Kanya
Ambassador of Swaziland to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Swaziland
1712 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: (202) 234.8254
Ambassador Phesheya Mbongeni Dlamini
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Swaziland to the United Nations
408 East 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
Fax: (212) 754.2755
H.E. Maurice S. Parker
U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland
Embassy of the United States of America
Central Bank Building, 7th Floor
Warner Street
Mbabane
Swaziland
Fax: (011.268) 404.5959
(OR: United States Embassy – Swaziland
P.O. Box 199
Mbabane
Swaziland)