SECTOR 4 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: 3.0 (2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: 1.8; 2011: 3.3) 4.4 Journalists and other media practitioners are organised in trade unions and/or professional associations, which effectively represent their interests. The dominant media organisation in the country is MISA Swaziland, which conducts workshops on various issues relevant to the media. The only active media association is the Swaziland Editors Forum, although it is not considered to be very progressive, and has the interests of editors and their publications at heart, rather than the interests of journalists. The Forum recently began hosting monthly breakfast meetings between editors and the PM and Cabinet ministers, which panellists felt was a positive development in the country. The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) exists in name only and is effectively defunct due to a lack of support and funding. When it was active, the association dealt with professional issues moreso than labour concerns. “It is dormant because of a lack of interest from journalists. They wouldn’t even pitch for meetings.” When SNAJ was functioning, its membership was made up primarily of Observer employees. Times’ journalists are allowed to belong to unions, as long as there is at least a 50 percent representation of that union within the company, but “there is a tendency among journalists not to join unions because of a lack of interest.” “It is difficult to interest journalists in their own welfare, and a big challenge to bring them together on issues. Even with the Makhubu-Maseko case, it has not been possible to unify journalists on the issue of freedom of expression. If we can’t connect on this level there is no way we could form a union… It’s an issue 60 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Swaziland 2014