Mbabane - Swaziland’s government monopoly on broadcast media will merge its radio and television operations by the end of the year.
This is according to King Mswati’s Minister of Information, Communications and Technology, Dumisani Ndlangamandla.
Ndlangamandla floated government plans in the Times of Swaziland last week to combine state-owned radio, the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Service (SBIS) and Swazi TV, as a cost-cutting measure.
However, the government control over news and other programming heard by listeners and seen by viewers will continue in the landlocked kingdom of 1.2 million people.
“Regulations governing the operations of the new entity, which will combine SBIS and Swazi TV, are being drawn up,” a source within the Communications Ministry said.
The merger will replace separate radio and TV administrative teams with a single management unit to run the country’s broadcast media, freeing King Mswati to use the country’s treasury money for other purposes.
Swaziland does not permit non-government broadcast media. A foreign-owned Christian radio station has been licensed in Manzini, but does not broadcast news or current events.
Tight control
SBIS broadcasts 24 hours of radio programming daily on its siSwati channel and 18 hours of programming daily on its English channel.
With 90 percent of Swazis receiving their news from radio, King Mswati’s government jealously guards its broadcasting monopoly. Rules for broadcast content ban labour unions and pro-democracy groups from the airwaves.
News coverage may not include events that have not been sanctioned by the government.
Labour strikes, pro-democracy demonstrations, criticism of King Mswati and matters considered embarrassing to the government are not seen or heard by Swazi radio listeners or television viewers.
“Most Swazis do not have access to international media, and the domestic media is controlled by the king, who personally owns one of the country’s two newspapers. With the exception of a (radio) station devoted to religious programmes, radio and television are government departments under the king’s control.
South African newspapers entering Swaziland are carefully screened. If an edition contained information that was unfavourable to the king or the government, the government purchased and destroyed all copies, Freedom House, a Washington-based human rights group, reported.
Ndlangamandla said that the new national media conglomerate would have a commercial component, suggesting that part of the operation would be privatised.
But media analysts say any potential investor would be discouraged by the lack of profit generated by Swaziland’s broadcast media houses.
Radio is the sole source of information for rural people, where 70 percent of Swazis live.