Swaziland In the year under review, the management of the state broadcasters perfected state media capture. In between the programmes and news-bulletin, public information officers working at the radio channel played SiSwati interludes extolling the benefits of living in a monarchy and featured songs portraying the king as the most benevolent ruler. There is a clear perception that dissenting voices cannot be aired in the state-controlled broadcaster. Its slogan, Voice of the Nation, rings hollow as long as Members of Parliament and citizens are still banned from making use of state radio. ACCESS TO INFORMATION With respect to access to information (ATI), the Information and Media Development Unit had engaged a Commonwealth consultant to redraft the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill 2007. A decade later, accessing information remained difficult in the kingdom. Worse still, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill was never enacted but left to gather dust on the shelves. There was no political will to promulgate ATI legislation even before the dissolution of Parliament for the 2018 national elections. Swazi citizens continue to be deprived of critical information through lack of legislated access to public information, the lifeblood of national development. This state of affairs is in gross violation of Section 24 of the Constitution which states that a person has the ‘freedom to receive ideas and information.’ MISA Swaziland ran an ATI campaign in a strong bid to push for the passage of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill into law. Results of the 2017 MISA Transparency Assessment were no different from the previous years. There was still reluc- tance among the officials to release information in the custody of public institutions to information seekers. Worse, there were no clear lines of communication. Government ministries had hired information officers who were paid for doing nothing because they were not empowered to respond to queries. Only the Principal Secretaries in the ministries were authorised to give responses. Unfortunately, they had little time for information seekers. All this further underscored the urgent need for the promulgation of the ATI law to force the public institutions to release information to information seekers timeously. There is a clear perception that dissenting voices cannot be aired in the state-controlled broadcaster. Its slogan, Voice of the Nation, rings hollow as long as Members of Parliament and citizens are still banned from making use of state radio. MEDIA AND ELECTIONS So This is Democracy? 2017 103