Promoting excellence, defending media freedom, and shaping ethical journalism standards.
The Swaziland Editors Forum is proud to announce a three-year partnership programme with the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). The initiative aims at transformative capacity-building that strengthens professional competencies, ethical practice, media innovation and industry-academic collaboration.
News
Editors Forum launches Lilungelo Lakho, a milestone advocacy program defending media freedom and citizens' access to information.
News
The Annual Editors Summit is scheduled for October 2026, focusing on battling disinformation and building public trust.
It's critical that civil society believes that the news media serves their interest because public confidence is the cornerstone of trustworthy journalism. This is particularly important because in recent history, especially during the 2021 national unrest, large sections of the news media went disturbingly quiet, thereby abandoning their public mandate to reflect society to itself.
That lesson reminds the Swaziland Editors Forum to the vital role of the media to dedicate efforts to preserving and promoting public trust in the media and in the credibility of the information it disseminates be it on print, broadcast radio or TV or their online platforms, and ensuring that it sets the benchmark for accuracy, truth, timelines and public interest.
As an organization dedicated to quality service, we support the news industry by facilitating continuous learning and professional engagements that contribute to effective leadership for authentic media products that inform, educate and continuously push the boundaries to effect the promises to democratic governance and transparent leadership enshrined in our constitution.
Discussing media futures and ethical leadership.
We drive progress through targeted initiatives that address rights, standards, membership growth, and career development.
There is consensus that despite the 2005 Constitution, improvement in democratic rights, transparency and accountable governance, human rights and the space for civil society has been slow. The news media which is an essential asset to citizen access to human rights continues to face significant challenges. With the support of the European Union, the Swaziland Editors Forum is partnering in the implementation of the national project: Advancing Civil Society Space, Human Rights and Access to Justice (Lilungelo Lakho) which seeks to support civil society efforts to advance constitutional rights.
Journalists practice their craft on the basis of a promise to society that they are trustworthy. The public must believe that journalists merit the right to access all public spaces and collect information and audio video to be used in the public interest, to produce news that is complete and true, that is accurate, that is timely and limit harm. These promises are contained in the code of ethics to which all practicing journalists subscribe.
The Editors Forum is a platform for professional interaction of apex news leaders for interacting with the cultural, economic social and political dynamics that shape the news environment, Members are the title editors of newspapers, broadcast radio and broadcast TV.
Journalism is vital in society because it constantly exposes new issues to public attention, inspiring debate, shaping narratives and often, promoting social change. In exercising the constitutional liberties to advance freedom of thought, freedom of expression and press freedom, reporters investigate and expose issues in the public interest. In performing their duty, journalists, universally are perpetually in conflict with cultural, economic, political and social power structures who resist transparency and consider journalist investigations an interference in their work. As this is a common problem universally, the Editors Forum has a duty to strengthen public education to improve appreciation for the importance of press freedom.
Continuous learning is a vital part of strengthening public trust in journalists and credibility of the information they disseminate. As the world is constantly changing and with it, people's experiences and expectations, the demand for journalists to unpack ever more complex issues creates significant need for journalists to continuously improve their knowledge and capacity to present news, current affairs and analysis. Continuous learning is one of the key pillars of the Editors Forum Programme.
Press self-regulation is a system where the news media industry monitors and enforces its own ethical and professional standards without direct government control or state censorship. It protects freedom of the press while maintaining public accountability.
Collaborate with media leaders, share tools, stay up to date with journalistic developments, and advocate for ethical independence.
