MEDIA AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

Swaziland’s media do not contribute a great deal to the good governance of Swaziland.

This is the main conclusion of my academic research published last week.

The research sets out four research questions: (i) How pluralistic is media ownership? (ii) How independent are the media from government? How representative are the media of different opinions and how accessible are they to different sections of society, including poor and vulnerable groups and political parties? (iv) What are the capabilities of Swazi journalists and where might there be areas for development?

A review of the Swazi press concludes that on any objective standard the newspapers are found wanting but there are a number of mitigating factors. The country is not a democracy and journalists are harassed if they try to write and publish material that offends the king and his government. There is little that can be done about this so long as the king continues to hold absolute powers. The Swazi Constitution signed into law in 2006 does nothing to diminish these powers.

The international community should exert pressure on the kingdom to allow the media proper editorial freedom with legislation to protect and promote the public interest. The public interest should extend beyond the interest of powerful groups to include the poor, powerless and voiceless. It might be that in a kingdom such as Swaziland, the printed press is not the best vehicle to achieve this and instead radio should be extended by dismantling the state controlled SBIS and encouraging the creation of small, community-run stations that are better able to allow for the expression of a range of opinions of public concern.

The research is published in Global Media Journal – African Edition, a new academic journal published by Stellenbosch University. It is available online here.