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Newspaper editor arrested and charged

Bheki Makhuba, the editor of Swaziland's independent 'Times Sunday', appeared in court on Monday on charges of defamation after writing an article about the King's new fiancée, a spokeswoman for the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) told IRIN. The spokeswoman said that Makhuba was not asked to plead and was released on bail of about US $500. She said that the bail conditions were that he had to surrender his passport to the authorities, report once every fortnight to the police, and was prohibited from publishing anything related to King Mswati's bride-to-be. She said that the first hearing was scheduled to take place next week Monday. Makhuba's arrest followed a story which appeared in his newspaper on 12 September, which said that the latest bride of King Mswati, who was chosen at a recent Reed Dance ceremony, was a high school dropout. Soon after the publication of the story, Makhuba was, according to the MISA spokeswoman, forced to resign from his post. "There has been a debate over whether or not the newspaper should have published the story. Many saw it has being extremely disrespectful towards the Swazi royal family and that it was a serious breach of tradition," the spokeswoman explained. According to MISA, the Swazi government was in the process of drafting legislation that would bring into being tougher laws on defamation of character. "Media groups in Swaziland are opposed to the proposed law and have said that they want some kind of consultation on the issue before it becomes law," the spokeswoman added. She told IRIN that earlier this year, various stakeholders within the media held discussions with the minister of information, with a view to developing a media policy. The idea was that a voluntary media council would be established, which would develop a code of conduct. "During these discussion the minister had agreed to walk this path with the media, the events in recent days is in stark contrast to this commitment by him," the MISA spokeswoman said.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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