SECTOR 2 “It is in the interests of the newspaper (to have someone loyal to the king on the payroll) and may protect the newspaper from being shut down by the information minister with no explanation.” Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 4.7 (2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: n/a; 2011: n/a) 2.5 Adequate competition legislation/regulation seeks to prevent media concentration and monopolies. The Swaziland Competition Commission was established in 2007 to encourage competition in the economy by, amongst other measures, controlling anticompetitive trade practices. In terms of the provisions set out in the Swaziland Competition Act of 2007 - which is very general and not specific to media at all - monopolies are not allowed, and legislation can be implemented to prevent this situation if deemed necessary. Even so, panellists felt that the country’s citizens tend to be apathetic when it comes to scrutinising possible monopolies. “Swazis won’t question monopolies even if they exist.” The 2013 Swaziland Communications Commission Act seeks, amongst other objectives, to regulate the broadcast media industry in terms of fair competition. However, apart from its board, the commission itself has still not been established, and, as such, has not begun to regulate the broadcasting industry. The 2007 National Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy states that crossownership of the media (i.e. owning both a radio station and a newspaper, for example) is not allowed. “The challenge here is this is just a policy and it is not supported by relevant legislation.” AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Swaziland 2014 35