By Zweli Martin Dlamini

State captured journalists have a systematic way to downplay the ongoing human rights violations in this country, they have been doing this for years, manipulating journalism to support oppression.

Journalists are very skilled in driving an agenda and sometimes, it takes another writer to identify the motive behind an article.

On Thursday,the Times of eSwatini reported that, police clashed with protesters as if there was a fight when in fact there was a live broadcast of the incident substantiating that,King Mswati's police found protestors at the Mbabane Bus Rank protesting against the Gege-eMbondzela evictions and attacked them.

But because the Times is used to misleading the masses with an intention to incubate the human rights violations in this country, it alleged that there was a clash.

The word ‘clash’ implies that,there was a fight between the police and the protesters and in context, it takes away the privilege of treating, perceiving or parading the protestors as victims of State police brutality in the eyes of the international community.

Police went on to abduct Siboniso 405 Mkhabela, the National Organizing Secretary(NOS) of the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) who was running away from the police.

Is there any clash when an unarmed citizen is running away from the police and subsequently be abducted by the State security agents?.

Well,I fully understand that Paul Loffler,the Times Director has multibillion investment interests in this country, he is owning properties and to him, the capitalism driven Tinkhundla system that violates human rights must be protected at all costs.

But let me correct the captured journalists, when State police officers attack innocent citizens that is not a clash.

It’s a violation of human rights and in this regard, it’s police brutality that undermines or violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Captured journalism is dangerous to the masses because it disseminates poisonous information and mislead the world.

For all these years, people have been living under oppression because the State controlled media was assisting the Tinkhundla system to incubate human rights violations while promoting the interests of royal supremacy.

No wonder the Times of eSwatini is busy publishing Government theories about human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko’s death, the intention is to always assist the government to evade accountability after killing civilians.

But time for propaganda is over, police assaulted political activists on Wednesday merely for protesting against land grabbing,there was no clash and the said clash as published by the Times, only exist in the fragment of the author’s own imagination.

Journalism was founded to be the voice of the voiceless and as per the basic principle of journalism, the media is highly expected to,at all times,act in the public interest.