“The police were very confused until they started monitoring SNAT’s Facebook and WhatsApp accounts. For two days, SNAT could not access these accounts. The police were clearly trying to limit the co-ordination of SNAT’s plans.” There are several pieces of legislation pending from 2006 that would transform and free the broadcasting sector. However, currently, even the recently enacted Swaziland Communication Commission Act has absolutely no influence on the firmly controlled broadcasting sector. The Act, passed in 2013, transfers the powers of the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), as well as those of the Swazi Television Authority (STA), to the single and newly established Swaziland Communications Commission. While the board for the Swaziland Communications Commission has been established and advertisements for staff have been placed in the media, the Commission has not yet begun operating because it does not have the sufficient capacity or legislation required for it to do its work. As such, licences cannot be issued at this stage. Currently, the legal framework for the broadcasting industry does not accommodate a three-tiered broadcasting sector (of public, commercial and community operators). There is a sense that the status quo suits the powers-thatbe because, in terms of local radio, citizens only have access to national news broadcasts emanating from the state-run (SBIS). An interesting phenomenon is the competition within the media sector because the advertising market is so small. A certain media house, which has the relative security of broad reach “operates like the mafia” in the advertising arena by approaching advertisers and instructing them not to advertise in other print publications or risk not being granted space in that publication. Pressure on the media is also exerted by the larger corporate companies who threaten to withdraw advertising if articles written about them are not favourable. There have also been several instances when Government has withheld advertising from publications considered unsupportive of the state, and threatened to withdraw advertising from certain media houses in an effort to get publications to ‘toe the line’ politically. There is general consensus that the media is fragmented and weak in taking on issues collectively, which is compounded by their inability to effectively unite through professional associations. The only active body is the Swaziland National Editors Forum, which has the interests of editors at heart rather than being concerned with issues affecting journalists. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Swaziland 2014 9