SECTOR 3 3.1 Broadcasting legislation has been passed and is implemented that provides for a conducive environment for public, commercial and community broadcasting The reform of the broadcasting sector and corresponding legislation has been in the works for over 12 years. A Broadcasting Bill has been long in the making but has yet to be legislated. The latest version – the Broadcasting Bill of 2016 – ‘fell off because parliament was dissolved and so the process has been stalled. It now has to start afresh and go through all the stages’. The Bill seeks to address a number of issues in streamlining the broadcasting sector, including setting the framework for the three-tier broadcasting system (public, commercial and community); creating the Swaziland Broadcasting Corporation by merging the SBIS (currently a department within the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology) and Swazi TV under one roof; transforming this independent entity into a public broadcaster and repealing the Swaziland Television Authority; empowering the Swaziland Communication Commission to regulate the corporation and the sector; establishing a broadcasting complaints commission and so forth. In the absence of broadcasting legislation that deals with these and other issues, much remains stalled in the broadcasting sector. Other pieces of legislation that impact on the broadcasting sector includes the Electronic Communications Act of 2013, which deals specifically with licensing, frequency spectrums and other broadcasting issues and the Swaziland Communications Commission Act of 2013, which established the commission that oversees the broadcasting sector (removing that responsibility from the SPTC). Again, in the absence of enacted broadcasting legislation, there is only so much that the commission can do. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 37 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ESWATINI 2018 ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ 1.0 (2005: 1.1; 2007: 1.3; 2009:1.0; 2011: 1.4; 2014: 2.8)