Radio Swaziland needs to work harder to meet its own aim to inform the Swazi nation effectively and impartially for the purposes of development and social welfare.
That is one of the conclusions of a survey into the news bulletins on the English service of Radio Swaziland.
Radio Swaziland is part of the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Service which is a government department. By its own account SBIS is ‘responsible for disseminating news and information aimed at educating, informing and entertaining the Swazi nation effectively and impartially for the purposes of development and social welfare through radio broadcasts and publications.’
It goes on to say, ‘The overall role of the SBIS is to assist the Government of Swaziland meet her priorities under the National Development Strategy (NDS), and in particular towards the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty alleviation and employment generation.’
To test whether the radio station was living up to its own mission, I did a survey of the English Service of Radio Swaziland for the week Monday to Friday starting on Monday 29 October 2007. I took the 6 am bulleting (which is repeated word for word at 7 am) and I counted the first six items of the bulletin. Usually there are no more than six items in the entire bulletin which lasts for 10 minutes.
There is only one voice heard on Radio Swaziland news – that of the news reader. No journalists report from the scene of an event and there are no voices of people who have made the news.
The reading ability of the news readers is generally poor. They have difficulty reading the English language aloud and it is very common for them to take two or three attempts at pronouncing some words.
In my survey there were 30 reports in total. Of these only nine were about Swaziland. On three days (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) there was only one news report each day from Swaziland.
The most popular source of news was from South Africa (13 items). Otherwise, during the week there was one report from each of the following countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Sudan, Spain, Russia and Taiwan. Two news reports had no obvious national source.
Of the nine reports from Swaziland, six were speeches or statements from government ministers (including the prime minister), one was about the Swazi Royal Family and two were about private businesses.
Of the six statements from ministers only two concerned the workings of government (a report of impending legislation against sexual abuse of women and children and a report on road reconstruction).
On the evidence of this week’s listening Radio Swaziland cannot be said to be fulfilling its role to ‘responsible for disseminating news and information aimed at educating, informing and entertaining the Swazi nation effectively and impartially for the purposes of development and social welfare through radio broadcasts and publications.’
This is because only nine of the 30 reports were about Swaziland and on three days only one report came from the kingdom. These figures alone show that the radio station doesn’t even place Swaziland at the top of its news agenda (there are more reports from neighbouring South Africa).
When it does report on Swaziland it only reports the ‘official’ voices of government, royalty or business. This may be Radio Swaziland’s response to its remit of ‘disseminating news and information’, but if it is it is a very one-sided interpretation.
Nowhere in any bulletin did we hear the voices of ordinary people. Nor, is there any opposition views aired to the government position. This is dangerously close to government propaganda rather than ‘impartial’ news and information.
SBIS needs to reflect carefully about its mission and look at ways that its service can improve and truly offer news that helps development and social welfare.
(Radio Swaziland also airs news bulletins in the evening. I’ll write about those another time.)
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