Swaziland Bars Foreign Reporters

southern africa | miscellaneous | non-anarchist press Tuesday September 07, 2010 08:31 by Richard Rooney - Swazi Media Commentary swazimedia at yahoo dot com

The Swazi state is so worried about how the international community will view the Global Day of Action for democracy in Swaziland tomorrow (7 September 2010), it has barred foreign journalists from the kingdom.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that two of its journalists from South Africa were stopped from crossing the border into Swaziland earlier today.

AP says the journalists were told they would not be allowed into the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, to cover ‘illegal protests’.

AP also reports that Swazi police today deported foreign nationals who were at a meeting in Manzini, Swaziland, to support the campaign for human rights and democracy.

AP quotes Swazi police spokesperson Wendy Hleta saying, ‘we felt that they had no right to interfere’.

Police detained Swazis at the meeting before determining who was non-Swazi. Hleta says all were later released.