SECTOR 3

“Even when it has sufficient staff, the commission will not be able to act in any
meaningful way because it needs to implement broadcasting legislation, which
has still not been tabled in Parliament.”
Previously, radio broadcasting and telecommunications were regulated by the
1983 Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Act, which empowered the MD of
the SPTC to issue radio licences. The regulatory powers of the SPTC were passed
on to the director of communications in the ICT ministry prior to the Swaziland
Media Communications Act being passed in 2013, although no licences have
been granted in the past few years.
“So as not to step on the leadership’s toes, the ministry has not issued licences at
all for the past few years.”
To date, VoC is the only radio broadcaster that has been granted a licence, albeit
a provisional one. It initially applied for a community licence, but in the absence
of legislation pertaining to the granting of community licences, VoC has been
operating under a provisional licence. Recent licence applications of other wouldbe community radio broadcasters to the ICT Ministry have been ignored. When
the Communications Commission was created in 2013, the ICT ministry had
already been given the SPTC’s regulatory powers over radio, but it was not active
in this regard.
In the absence of more current legislation, the television broadcasting environment
is still regulated by the 1983 Swaziland Television Authority Act, which established
the STA. The STA was empowered to operate television broadcasting stations in
Swaziland, as well as to issue and withdraw licences. Because the STA is in charge
of both issuing licences and operating Swazi TV, this makes it both a player and
a regulator in the broadcasting environment, thus exposing the authority to a
conflict of interest.
The Swaziland Communications Commission and the draft broadcasting bills
allow for a three-tiered broadcasting environment with public, commercial and
community broadcasting, although this has not been put into practice.
“The reluctance to pass broadcasting legislation appears to be a sign of the
government not really wanting to open the airwaves, as access to broader sources
of information by citizens could threaten the status quo of the current traditional
leadership.”

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Swaziland 2014

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