BY EPN Reporter
MBABANE – Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini encourages the media in the country to be patriotic.
Dlamini said this today during a breakfast meeting he held with Eswatini Editors Forum, which was held at Mountain View, Mbabane. The Premier said being patriotic did not mean the media should always glorify what was done by Government.
He further said patriotism did not mean always being positive about what was done by Government or any of its stakeholders. The PM also called upon the media to be self-regulatory. He highlighted that the media had failed to regulate itself for about 21 years now.
The Premier wondered how such a thing could be allowed to happen in this country. He said the media held everyone accountable yet they did not want to be accountable, through self-regulatory mechanisms. The PM clarified that he did not intend to muzzle the media in any way. All he wanted was for the media to raise its standards as it did its work.
He said the young journalists had to learn from the ones that had experience in the field. The PM, in trying to show how self-regulation can be effective, made an example of a certain scenario in one of the neighbouring countries. He said there was one of the media houses that showed explicit content at a certain time. The audience of this television station did not take this lightly. They complained about this matter until this television station stopped showing the explicit content.
