ADVERTISERS DOMINATE SWAZI PRESS

If you need proof that Swaziland’s newspapers are more interested in pleasing advertisers than giving readers good journalism here it is.

Yesterday (1 July 2008) both of the kingdom’s two newspapers, the Times of Swaziland and the Swazi Observer gave up their entire front pages to an advert from cellphone provider, MTN, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company’s presence in Swaziland.

The only way you could tell the difference between the two newspapers on the newsstands was by the newspaper’s title poking out of the top of the advert.

The Swazi Observer went one better than the Times by providing a full four-page wraparound for MTN. It had a front-page advert, a back page advert and two inside pages of photographs of MTN activities.

I’ve written before about the closeness of the newspapers (especially, but not only, the Observer) to MTN. The newspapers seem to uncritically report on MTN activities and seem to provide more space to the company than to any other organisation in Swaziland.

This leads to a suspicion that the newspapers do not objectively report on MTN because of an over-reliance on the company for advertising revenue.

The coverage is almost always excessively favourable and this could be a disservice to the people of Swaziland, especially when you recognise that MTN has a monopoly of the cellphone market in Swaziland.

Both newspapers yesterday also carried news reports of MTN’s launch of celebrations to mark its tenth anniversary. In both newspapers the ‘news reports’ are indistinguishable from public relations handouts.

Recently, I have been researching into censorship and self-censorship in the Swazi media by interviewing media practitioners about their experiences. I was told that because the Swazi economy is so small, some advertisers are so important to the newspapers that a special relationship exists between the advertiser and the advertising department.

In my report (to be officially launched this coming Friday) I say that a number of companies and organisations were specifically cited as organisations that regularly tried to censor the content of newspapers. Included in a list of companies which do this was MTN, described to me as ‘a definite no-go area’.

I have some sympathy with the accountants at the newspapers. Swaziland is so poor that the newspapers need to get their money wherever they can. But turning your newspaper into an advertising poster for a company is a step too far.

I was pleased to see the Times of Swaziland today (2 July 2008) asserting some editorial independence over MTN. It had two unflattering reports about the company.

The first reported that MTN’s celebration of ten years in operation was marred by a two-hour service blackout in Nhlangano.

The second concerned a revelation that MTN Caller Tunes for ring tones were not all recorded by original artists as customers believed. Instead, the tunes were ‘cover versions’ by unknown artists.

See also
NEWS AND ADVERTISING BLUR