SECTOR 4 4.5 Journalists and media houses have integrity and are not corrupt ‘There is a fair amount of corruption in the media.’ Panellists – both from the media and from civil society – noted that there have been lapses in integrity in the media and that corruption is a common occurrence. Some panellists blamed this corruption on the poor salary and working conditions of media practitioners. ‘You can’t be getting paid 2,720 E (187 USD), then mingle with powerful politicians and not be compromised. Especially when your employer is unsupportive.’ ‘You can’t paint everyone with the same brush, but within the context of the challenges faced by the media, several things put pressure on journalists to compromise themselves. Those with power take advantage of these gaps and people’s personal, professional ambitions.’ Corruption is deemed not only prevalent amongst the lower paid journalists but also amongst more high-level practitioners. One panellist noted, ‘I accompanied a senior colleague to see a businessperson once and when we got there, I realised he had gone to receive a brown envelope.’ Another noted that at times, this corruption happens at the top with the editors and managers and a subordinate journalist may knowingly or unknowingly get caught up in it. ‘Some journalists have their accommodation rentals paid for by business people.’ ‘In fact, corruption is an understatement. The correct phrase would be media capture. These are not small amounts that we are talking about, they are big amounts.’ How this corruption plays out takes different forms including not publishing a story; campaigning for certain individuals during the elections; attempts to ‘destroy’ or ‘expose’ someone; and the spinning of a story. Additionally, some journalists try to take advantage of a situation, demanding payment to publish or ‘kill’ a story; or acting as a middleman, wherein they play two parties with opposing interests or perspectives in a story against each other and extort bribes from them. A panellist commented, ‘As an artist, they won’t play your music on the radio unless you give them something. You have to send an e-wallet or mobile money to get them to play your song and only when you do will they play it.’ ‘On the issue of integrity, we have allowed ourselves as journalists to be compromised. If you look at the recent elections, for example, we had some journalists who went and contested, lost their campaigns and came back into the newsroom. They can’t be objective on reporting on these issues.’ 53 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ESWATINI 2018