Eswatini’s new Prime Minister, Russell Dlamini, has begun his term of office with a threat to regulate media.

In a meeting with members of the Eswatini Editors Forum (EEF) at Cabinet Offices on Wednesday February 14, he said he would enact the long-dormant Media Commission Bill, which would create a government-controlled media regulation body.

Dlamini was addressing editors for the first time since he was appointed by King Mswati III to be Head of Government last year. Editors left the meeting surprised at the new tough line and fearful for their future in a country that already has limited media freedom.

Though the meeting was behind closed doors, the Campaign For Free Expression (CFE) reliably gathered that Dlamini was highly critical of news content, especially in independent newspapers. One person who was present said the Prime Minister had cited the media’s failure to set up its own self-regulatory mechanism.

The EEF set up the Media Complaints Commission (MCC), a self-regulation body, a few years ago, but it had never become operational.

“He frowned at the Media Complaints Commission (MCC), which is a self-regulatory mechanism and was still not operational. He then said if editors were failing to operationalise it, government would have to revisit the Media Commission Bill,” an inside source said.

The Prime Minister is also said to have registered concern over poor salaries and working conditions in some publication that were raking in high profits.

Some members of the Editors’ Forum are said to have been displeased with the tone of the PM and asked to be given time and resources to make the MCC function. Editors made the point that government was as much to blame for the MCC’s inaction because broadcast media, controlled by government, had not shown any interest in it. Asked to engage further on this issue, the PM is said to have “toned down”.

Dlamini’s concerns came after similar submissions by former President of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists and now Member of Parliament, Welcome Dlamini, who had said in Parliament that the Media Commission Bill should be revived if the media failed to regulate itself.