King Mswati III has praised his own newspaper, the Swazi Observer, for the coverage it has
given to the national election due on Friday.
The king in effect owns the conglomerate Tibiyo Taka
Ngwane that in turn owns the Observer
group.
Mbongeni Mbingo, the Observer
managing editor, wrote in his own newspaper, ‘He said, in particular, this
newspaper had endeavoured to encourage the nation to exercise its right to
vote, and had continued to give good coverage of the exercise.’
Mbingo reported, ‘The king said he had observed that a
lot of the excitement around the election was because the media was playing its
role as a catalyst.’
Such praise from the king is not unexpected. In its last
annual report on media freedom, published in May 2013, the Media Institute of
Southern Africa called the Swazi
Observer a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’.
The coverage of the election by the Observer is in stark contrast to that of international media. They
are pointing out that the election for 55 members of the House of Assembly has
little purpose since political parties are banned from taking part and parliament
has no power. The king rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch.
The comments were part of a wider interview the Swazi Observer had with King Mswati. It was billed as an ‘exclusive’, but a similar
interview was published in the Times of Swaziland, the Observer’s only
rival newspaper on the same day.Reuters news agency also published an interview with
the king last week.
See also
MISA TELLS ‘TIMES’ EDITOR TO RESIGN
THE STATE OF SWAZI JOURNALISM 2013
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