By Zweli Martin Dlamini

In journalism,whether one agrees with editorial policies or not,State newspapers and broadcasters are essential in any country just like the independent media.

While the independent media might secure donors to fund its operations,the State must equally fund State media companies to enhance media pluralism and diversity of news.

The State owned Eswatini Observer was a stepping stone for some of us to climb the journalism ladder, we cannot therefore fold our arms and watch while another newspaper struggle because we understand that, competition in the media is very important to enhance the constitutional right to access to information.

Worth-noting, the eSwatini Observer was once closed by the then Prime Minister(PM) Dr. Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini around 2002 and the Times of eSwatini was charging companies huge amounts of money in advertising and pushing narratives without any competition, we don’t want that to happen again in this country.

But apart from providing resources to the Observer, Government or Tibiyo TakaNgwane might allow the newspaper to publish stories of public interest, the newspaper was once vibrant under the leadership of editor Vusi Sibisi and others, but the State castrated it.

It is alleged that, the then Prime Minister Barnabas when asked why he closed the Observer, he said “Ngeke kulunge kutsi inja ilume umnikati” and this, was State media censorship.

In as much as we want the independent media to be vibrant, the country equally needs the State owned media to be provided with resources to provide information to the public, the Observer can survive by publishing critical stories without compromising its editorial policies, these stories will then create public confidence and attract advertisers for future self-sustainability.

As the situation stands, journalists in that newspaper are complaining about Managing editor Mbongeni Mbingo,accusing him of bullying and maladministration, these are some of the issues that must be addressed by the owners of the newspaper Tibiyo TakaNgwane.

But the problems of the Observer cannot be isolated to Mbongeni Mbingo, this country is facing scarcity of skilled journalists and the quality of news-writers is no longer the same.

When Mbingo responded to this publication accusing journalist Mbono Mdluli of underperforming as the editor myself, I understood because the dynamics of journalism and the demand for news changes from time-to-time and these days, time is very important in journalism and excuses cannot be transferred to the end consumer.

At times we,editors find ourselves pursuing stories because of underperforming journalists, we cannot publish an apology to the readers and explain that there was no news because a journalist failed to produce stories.

But for a journalist to perform, he/she must be provided with the necessary resources including a competitive salary, that’s where the State or Tibiyo TakaNgwane should come-in and support State owned newspapers or media entities.

I am not suggesting this just because I agree with the Eswatini Observer content, I don’t have to agree with them but, that media house must exist to balance the media landscape.

The media, as an institution cannot be completed with the existence of the independent media or State owned alone, we need diversity of news from all angles.

It is my humble request therefore that, the challenges affecting the Eswatini Observer must be resolved in the public interest.

I normally criticise the Observer and it’s editors in principle but I cannot watch while another media house is on the brink of collapse, stakeholders must find a solution to the crisis.

But having said that,Mbongeni Mbingo must improve his leadership style,we are flooded with complaints against his leadership and of course, as an editor myself, I ignored some of these complaints because there were petty.

In leadership, it’s easy for subordinates to just accuse you to cover-up their underperformance and misconduct.

Stakeholders and owners of the newspaper must address the challenges with the intention of ensuring that the newspaper survives in the public interest.

We cannot entirely blame Mbingo, he was once suspended but the problems continued,the solution is to develop a new governing structure and provision of enough resources to enable journalists to receive their salaries in time.