SECTOR 1 far you can go.” Journalists may know what they want their interviewees to say, but “pre-empt the person to say what is acceptable in a particular situation”, depending on the institution the journalists work for. “If you go beyond the borders, they (journalists) will cut you immediately, and take you in a different direction.” Following the street protests of 12 April 2011, the trade unions called a press conference and all the media were there. However, a journalist from the statecontrolled Swazi TV warned that the footage of the press conference would not be aired and, indeed, nothing was broadcast. The authorities also regulate dissent through traditional power structures that have an influence over everyone, no matter where they live. “For all of us ‘home’ is in the rural areas, and an additional pressure on speaking freely is that they will go after your family.” Everyone falls under a chief, who can threaten the families of perceived troublemakers with eviction or the withholding of benefits controlled by traditional authorities. “It is not the individual that is affected, but all those around them. Even generations to come will suffer the same fate: scholarships, promotions, tenders, they are all affected.” Scholarship applications, for example, have to be endorsed by a traditional authority and the example was given of a chief who denied that a political activist was from his area, thereby depriving him of the scholarship he was applying for. In another case, traditional authorities even refused to allow a funeral in their area of power for someone who was supposed to be a ‘political activist’. “People seem to be getting bolder within the limits that exist. People in Swaziland are afraid.” Panellists distinguished between the practice of free expression, and the fear that may restrict it. “There is an emergence of more expression, but the pervasive fear is still there, and therefore there is still a great deal of self-censorship.” Generally, more and more people are prepared to talk about the country’s problems through the media, but fear still holds many people back. “People seem to be getting bolder within the limits that exist. People in Swaziland are afraid. Even so-called political parties are very afraid. There have not been any political demonstrations without the labour movement. Without labour there will be no one going to the streets. At the moment everyone is talking about the political situation, but no one is out on the streets. In Egypt people are on the streets. In Swaziland, the moment we go to the streets, the police will be there.” The labour movement has some protection under the constitution, but this does not extend to political parties. “April 12 [2011] was done behind the labour movement… The political space is not open here. Therefore you use the alternatives that are there, which are the trade unions, because they have the political space.” Some panellists pointed out how the situation in Swaziland differed from that which brought about the “Arab spring” in North Africa and the Middle East. “Here people have access to land, and this gives them some relative security, whereas a common factor among the protests in North Africa was unemployment 14 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SWAZILAND 2011