SECTOR 1 1.4 The Government makes every effort to honour regional and international instruments on freedom of expression and freedom of the media. Although the Swazi government has ratified and acceded to all regional and international instruments on freedom of expression and freedom of the media, it has failed to domesticate them. The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in 2002, for example, calls for the independence of the press, but this is still not guaranteed in Swaziland. “As far as the Windhoek Declaration goes, we are not even 10 percent towards implementing these stipulations. Government does not give a damn about it.” Participants felt that government was able to get away with not domesticating these instruments, because it fails to this disseminate information to the general populace and, in effect, is “keeping them in the dark”. “Even recommendations Swaziland has accepted as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) promising to promulgate legislation to ensure media freedom, have not been domesticated.” In this regard, mention was made of the banned democracy movement/opposition party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO). “How do we as journalists report about PUDEMO, for example, without being seen to be supporting them, in contravention of the Suppression of Terrorism Act?” In terms of reporting to international bodies such as the ACHPR, and demonstrating that such instruments have been domesticated, panellists said there was resistance from the state to doing this “because of accountability”. “Even shadow reports, meant to be united country reports from civil society, are not true shadow reports but are pre-empted by the state.” 20 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Swaziland 2014