Swaziland: Security forces target journalists

Authorities in the kingdom of Swaziland should allow the news media to report freely on anti-government protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said after security forces harassed at least 10 local and international journalists covering a mass demonstration demanding political and economic reform after more than two decades of rule by King Mswati III. Police stopped reporter Niren Tolsi and photographer Lisa Skinner of the South African daily Mail & Guardian, confiscated their notebooks and Swazi contact books, and threatened to deport them if the journalists reported anything negative about the country or the king, Africa's last absolute monarch, Nic Dawes, the paper's editor-in-chief, told CPJ.