Parliamentary onslaught In February 2006 parliament charged the privately owned Times of Swaziland newspaper with contempt over an analytical article questioning the legislature’s interference with the management of the state-controlled national radio station - a direct affront to freedom of expression. This episode was followed by the Minister of Information and Public Service tabling in parliament a pro-free media information and media policy. This policy liberalises and removes government monopoly of the airwaves; establishes an independent broadcasting authority to regulate the airwaves; transforms the state-controlled broadcast media into public broadcasters; and invests in the media industry, ensuring more professionalism. But given that the real power remains with the King, coupled with the legislature’s disposition to appeasing its political master and in the wake of the lawmakers’ interference with the administration of national radio, there are numerous reasons to be pessimistic over parliament’s reaction to the media policy. Ironically at the forefront of many of these assaults on the media are MPs who were previously employed on national radio. Passage of media policy It is significant that the media policy is a product of comprehensive consultation and input from all the stakeholders, from the state to the private media and individual journalists and their organisations, MISA Swaziland and the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) as well as some organs of the United Nations. This was a milestone achievement for the media, as the media policy issue has been on the table for more than a decade without any meaningful progress being made. Another achievement for the media in 2005 was the adoption of the Media Complaints Council (MCC). This was after protracted disagreement among media players on a self-regulatory mechanism. The launch of the MCC is expected in 2006. Divided journalists vulnerable The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) was revived in 2005. To what extent it will unite journalists is a matter of conjecture. Experience has shown that it is only during times of crises that Swazi journalists momentarily join forces under the banner of SNAJ. Thus, throughout its 25 years of existence, the association has proven largely ineffective. The key to building a cohesive professional organisation lies in SNAJ’s ability to give value to its membership by introducing innovative programmes to engage its members. Thus far SNAJ remains a symbolic organisation that has done little or nothing to promote and enhance professionalism among its members. One way of achieving this would be to host regular short courses on specific topics driven by practicing journalists themselves, as well as exposing them to long-term academic training through collaborative efforts with similar organisations, donor agencies and tertiary institutions. Not only would this improve professionalism but also build strong and long-lasting affinity between journalists and SNAJ. Government threatens to ‘monitor’ the media Notably there were no newcomers to the Swazi media in 2005. There were, however, lurking So This Is Democracy? 2005 -109- Media Institute of Southern Africa