N ever before has media freedom in the Swazi Kingdom been under such severe attack than as it was in 2014 and continues to be as this report goes to print. Throughout the year, Swaziland was the subject of free expression conversations around the world for all the wrong reasons as we witnessed shocking incidents of the government attempting to control and coerce the media and using legislation to deny Swazi citizens their constitutional right to free expression. In a panel discussion hosted by MISA in May 2014 to evaluate media freedom in Swaziland, it was clear journalists and citizens in general do not feel free to express themselves, with panel members – experts from Swazi media and civil society – saying, “spaces are shrinking for free expression.”1 FREE EXPRESSION AND THE LAW ‘Contempt of court’ represents shocking setback for free expression in southern Africa The stand-out incident for the Swazi media fraternity in 2014 and one of the most shocking setbacks for free expression in the region that year, was the arrest and sentencing of Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko, editor and columnist respectively of the independent Swazi news magazine, The Nation. Barely three months into the year, 1 Swaziland African Media Barometer Report, MISA and Fesmedia Africa 2014 Makhubu and Maseko, a human rights lawyer in Swaziland, were arrested and detained on the instructions of Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. The arrest came after they wrote and published two articles in The Nation’s February and March 2014 editions, criticising Ramodibedi for denying a suspect legal representation and calling on the judiciary to uphold freedom of expression and the rule of law. [In 2014] Swaziland was the subject of free expression conversations around the world for all the wrong reasons as we witnessed shocking incidents of the government attempting to control and coerce the media and using legislation to deny Swazi citizens their constitutional right to free expression. Instead of serving Maseko and Makhubu with court papers, Chief Justice Ramodibedi hauled the editor and columnist So This is Democracy? 2014 61