SECTOR 3 ‘In 2013, the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology issued Public Service Guidelines, which regulate the state broadcaster. The guidelines state clearly how to cover the king, the government, members of the royal family, etc. One part says that “the director must act as an editor and ensure any stories are seen by him before the stories go out”.’ A panellist noted that there had been times when the former prime minister would interfere as National Radio ran the news. ‘He would always be in the headline and edit the content. He would tell them to remove certain things, or say “I don’t want to hear his voice or see his face” on the broadcast.’ ‘There is no real independence. They are tightly controlled. Regarding content and who features first, they have to follow a priority list, which includes the king, the PM, royalty and so on. They can’t go out and get a diversity of voices and views and it seems there are certain people and institutions they can’t talk to.’ 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: ✓✓✓✓✓✓ ✓✓ ✓✓✓ 1.2 (2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: n/a; 2011: n/a, 2014: 1.2) 3.6 The state/public broadcaster is adequately funded in a manner that protects it from political interference through its budget and from commercial pressure The government funds the state broadcasters per the national budget, through which they receive an annual allocation. In addition, Swazi TV is also funded through TV licence fees of 180 E (13.50 USD) per TV set per annum (which it continuously struggles to collect) and advertising revenue. No annual reports are available to provide a funding breakdown of either SBIS or Swazi TV. As noted earlier, SBIS is essentially an arm of the MICT and does not produce annual reports. The MICT produces reports, but these do not provide detailed insights into SBIS’ financial standing or performance. As a parastatal, Swazi TV should by law produce annual reports, but panellists noted never having seen one. 41 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ESWATINI 2018