On April 9, 2003, two separate news stories appeared on the United Nations Integrated Regional INformation Networks which really summed up everything that is currently wrong with Africa. Both stories concerned events in Swaziland and the dueling headlines went like this,
Below Normal Harvest Expected
New Attempt to Muzzle the News Media
The first story, of course, dealt with Swaziland’s disastrous hunger situation. With severe crop failure likely, close to 1/3rd of Swaziland’s 1 million population will require food assistance this year to survive. Swaziland national disaster team chairman Ben Nsibandze was quoted by The Swaziland Times as saying,
We see as a result of all this, a poverty, hunger and disease situation that is progressively getting worse, as victims are deprived of all their coping mechanisms. We see the Swazi extended family structure collapsing as a result of family members failing to take care of their [HIV] infected and affected relatives. We see an increase in child-headed families, large numbers of orphans cared for by elderly and sometimes destitute grandparents, chronic malnutrition, children being taken out of school because of the absence of financial means to support them.
The obvious way to alleviate that sort of situation, of course, is censorship. Under new laws announced by Swaziland’s Minister of Information Abednego Ntshangase, state-owned media would be even further censored. Ntshangase told Swaziland’s legislature,
The national television and radio stations are not going to cover anything that has a negative bearing on government . . . This is not to say that the issues some describe as controversial will be untold. Statements on these will be released by the prime minister’s office.
Ah yes, all the news the government deems fit to report. The UNIRIN quoted an unnamed source as saying,
In fact, we are worried that stories like the food shortage will be censored from the national news, because it showed government was unprepared, and it raised questions about government land policy. Government holds a monopoly on radio and TV in the kingdom, so if the news is censored, most people will be uninformed about matters that affect their lives.
Illiberalism and starvation walking hand and hand in Africa yet again.
Sources:
New attempt to muzzle the news media. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, April 9, 2003.
Below normal harvest expected. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, April 9, 2003.