See above a screenshot from All Africa's report on Simelane's comments. (Credit: South Africa, screenshot)

Swaziland’s government Press Secretary Percy Simelane called for foreign journalists to abide by ethics and get accreditation before coming to Swalizand to report, The Times of South Africa reported.

Simelane claimed that two e.tv journalists who reportedly were “mistreated by police” were “on a mission to incriminate the country so that Swaziland is perceived as oppressive in the outside world,” according to the Times. (See reports on that detaining here and here.) It would seem, however, that journalists being detained and mistreated by the police is by definition oppressive behavior.

Simelane added that “Getting accreditation is easy.”  All Africa noted that Simelane made his comments on “state-controlled radio station” SBIS.

Reporters without Borders’s 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index ranked Swaziland 144 of 179 countries.  The Media Institute of Southern Africa’s Swaziland Chapter weighed in on the detained journalists, saying the group “condemned the manner of the journalists’ detention,” according to All Africa.