MBABANE: Times Weekend editor Welcome Dlamini, the President of the Eswatini National Association of Journalists(ENAJ)has accused some Judges of colluding with law-firms to silence the media through interdicts and questionable lawsuits.
Speaking to this Swaziland News current affairs program during an interview on Thursday evening as part of the World Press Freedom Day Commemoration, the editor cited other factors hindering media freedom in the country,he accused the Judiciary of being a tool to silence journalists through court orders.
“We have little cases where ordinary people invade the newsroom to intimidate journalists,in fact it’s no longer happening. What is happening now is that the courts are being used to block stories and silence the media. Most of the time, high profile individuals who don’t want their stories to be published run to court for an order. We haven’t heard a situation where the court ruled in favour of the media and/or dismissed an application for interdict.This is a major concern to us as journalists because it seems the Judiciary is being weaponized against the media.You will note that we normally lose almost all lawsuits and these court orders affects our work as journalists,” he said.
The President of the Eswatini National Association of Journalists urged the media to unite and monitor the conduct of the Judiciary against the media.He alleged that some Judges collude with a certain law-firm and grant lawsuits judgements against the media.
“This has resulted to self-censorship because journalists end-up avoiding to write certain stories in fear of being sued.There are certain people that we know, everytime when they approach the courts for an order against the media,they become successful. We discussed this yesterday(Wednesday) that there’s a particular law-firm that is always approached by individuals like CEOs and there are certain special Judges who always preside over these cases against the media,” said the President of the Association of Journalists.
High Court of eSwatini.