The Media Landscape of Namibia
The Namibian media was shaped by its struggles during the liberation movement to criticize apartheid and the ruling South African government. Many of these journalists continue their work today to ensure that the government also respects the rules of freedom of expression for which the Namibian people fought so hard.
Major News Outlets
Name |
Medium |
Owner |
History and Background |
Online / Print |
unclear, seems to be its own thing |
Launched in 2011, published weekly on Mondays, readership of 60,000, daily online |
|
Online / Print |
Namibia Media Holdings |
Oldest German-language newspaper in Africa, initially founded to report on WWI. Name changed after Germany lost possession of Namibia. Was previously pro-apartheid, pro-South African during the 1970s |
|
Online only (print was discontinued) |
Daniel Steinmann |
Monthly business newsletter, print edition stopped publication in 2016 |
|
TV/Radio |
Public broadcasting service |
24 hour radio station in English and nine other stations in Setswana, German, Afrikaans, Oshiwambo, Damara/Nama, Otijihero, Rukavango, Silozi, San. TV plays mainly English shows with some variety from other languages, as well as some broadcasts from Deutsche Welle. Has been accused of favoring SWAPO political party. |
|
Print and Online |
mostly donors |
Initially aimed to support Namibian independence from South Africa, Praised by Kofi Annan for integrity, government boycotted 2000-2011 |
|
TV |
Value |
based out of South Africa |
|
TV |
Value |
Value |
|
Print and Online |
Max Media Conglomerate |
48-page tabloid/investigative with a print run of 11,000 copies a week that are distributed in every region of Namibia. |
Notable Journalists
Gwen Lister
Gwen Lister is the former editor of The Namibian. She now works for the Namibia Media Trust -- which owns the paper -- to promote freedom. Previously, she co-founded the Windhoek Observer in 1978 and used the paper to criticize apartheid in South Africa. She was harassed, searched, and put on trial by the South African government for her controversial reporting. She also founded The Namibian in 1985, continuing to criticize the apartheid regime, and was arrested -- but later released because of international protests on her behalf. Even after Namibian independence from South Africa, she continued to be harassed for the watchdog role that The Namibian played in monitoring the new ruling party, SWAPO. For her work, she has received an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 1992, the Courage in Journalism Award in 2004, and was named one of the International Press Institute's 50 Press Freedom Heroes in 2000. |
Tangeni Amupadhi
Tangeni Amupadhi is the current editor of The Namibian. He took over the position from Gwen Lister in 2011. Prior to that, he was co-founder and editor of Insight Namibia, which he describes as a monthly business and politics magazine. He also worked for the South African Mail and Guardian paper, and was a Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard. Max Hamata Max Hamata is the controversial tabloid editor of the Confidénte. In 2013 the Swapo Party announced that he and the paper were being fined N$1,5 million for an allegedly libelous story he had written that stated that the "Founding President had been 'privileged' to graze his 200 cattle on a farm belonging to the ministry of defense." The prosecutors argued that this was meant to suggests that the founding president was greedy and over-privileged, as he had not asked for special permission to graze his cattle there. They were further angered by Hamata's delays in issuing an apology. While Hamata's integrity has been called into question, he remains a large figure in the Namibian media. Toivo Ndjebela
Toivo Ndjebela is the managing editor of the New Era. Previously, he was the editor of the Namibian Sun. He has also worked at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, the Windhoek Observer and Informante. |
Social Media Use
Social media use within Namibia has been growing. A 2015 study comparing the habits of American and Namibian college students found that Facebooks is the dominant form of social media in both countries. Specifically in Namibia, the study noted that college students are more transparent and engage in less self-censorship than their American peers, which the writers, Anica N. Peters, Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, and Brian E. Mennecke cite as resulting from the more "close-knit" society where family and community structures remain important.
Notably absent from the social media scene is the government-controlled Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. Several radio stations have large followings on Twitter and Facebook, but these stations are primarily music, not news-focused. One Africa TV remains the only TV station within Namibia to run any sort of social media account, although the South Africa-based DSTv has a following of 348k on Twitter.
Daily News Statistics
*numbers are current as of October 1, 2018. Sourced from social bankers.com and verified on Twitter and Facebook*
Notably absent from the social media scene is the government-controlled Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. Several radio stations have large followings on Twitter and Facebook, but these stations are primarily music, not news-focused. One Africa TV remains the only TV station within Namibia to run any sort of social media account, although the South Africa-based DSTv has a following of 348k on Twitter.
Daily News Statistics
*numbers are current as of October 1, 2018. Sourced from social bankers.com and verified on Twitter and Facebook*
Control of Information -- Repression, Propaganda, Corporate Influence
Repression
- Social Media Censorship of Hunting Photos -- July 2018
- The Namibian reported that the Namibia Press Agency had covered the environmental minister Pohamba Shifeta stated at an event that "people posting pictures on social media of themselves posing with hunted animals would be prosecuted and punished through proposed new amendments to relevant regulations." He condemned these social media posts as "immoral" and "misrepresent[ing]" hunting in Namibia.
- Frederico Links, the columnist for The Namibian covering this issue condemns Shifteta's proposal as censorship and an attack on freedom of expression, stating that it is not the job of the government to morally police the press or social media. Instead, he argues that the environmental minister should work on regulations that would limit hunting more strictly; by attempting censor social media content related to hunting, Links argues that Shifeta may have had the opposite effect as intended by equating trophy hunting as a way to now express support for free speech.
- Vice President proposes social media censorship -- February 2017
- In February 2017 the Namibian Sun reported that Vice President Nickey Iyambo argued that the government should censor social media to stop youth in particular from using platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to "insult elders and disturb the peace of the country."
- The FreedomHouse profile for Namibia notes that no such regulations were carried out after this call for censorship. However, it does also note that "the 2009 Communications Act allows the government to conduct surveillance on various forms of communication without a warrant."
- Government boycott of The Namibian
- Between 2000 and 2011, the Namibian government led a boycott of The Namibian, which the Committee to Protect Journalists notes was an effort on behalf of former President Sam Nujoma to "punish the paper for its independence." During the decade-long boycott, all government advertising in and purchases of the paper were prohibited, which reportedly costs The Namibian 6% of its advertising revenue and 650 single issue sales.
- In August 2011, however, then-President Hifikepunye Pohamba ended the boycott in a two-paragraph statement. CPJ notes that "the understated announcement seemed to illustrate the valuable lesson the government had learned: citizens want a critical, independent media. After all, the boycott, intended to shutter the paper through financial pressure, only made it stronger." Gwen Lister, its founding editor, noted that Namibians were proud of their independent press in the face of colonial rule from South Africa, and that "Namibians were independent enough not to want the same [propaganda and repression that the South African government imposed] from their newly elected government."
Fake News
Several instances of "fake news" have been identified and discussed within Namibia. Here are a sampling of stories:
- Vice President Nangolo "Mbumba cautions on fake news" -- May 2, 2018
- The Namibian reported somewhat skeptically on a speech offered by VP Mbumba in which he accused a small group of "political opportunistic people of spreading false accusations about the government's failures to solve the current economic issues. He is cited as stating that “Together with some media houses, and on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter forums, this group has been chronically painting the sitting President in very dark colours. Under the disguise of freedom of speech, they daily and weekly harangue, ridicule and character-assassinate the character and integrity of the sitting President, government and the ruling party, by misleadingly rehashing old stories or contriving fake news to foster widespread hatred and discontent among the general Namibian populace."
- The Namibian admitted publishing four fake news stories -- April 17, 2018
- iMediaEthics reported that The Namibian admitted to publishing four fake stories about a woman who claimed to have various successes because of studying and who allegedly went to Harvard. Two profiles of the woman were included in the youth version of the paper in order to inspire readers to commit to their education, and the woman was only discovered to be a fake after a co-worker phoned the newspaper about the story in a tip-off. In an apology statement, the acting editor of The Namibian admitted that they failed to follow "basic journalistic standards" by neglecting to verify their sources.
- Warnings about fake news -- April 12, 2018
- This article from the Confidénte talks about the publicity that fake news has received and provides a general description of what fake news is, noting that it can be created to "drive web traffic" and "for financial gain." More specifically, the article focuses on an announcement made by the Namibian Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology (MICT) cautioning citizens "against being creators and circulators of fake news."
This press release was a reaction to message that had spread quickly through WhatsApp alleging that the Namibian government "had passed a new regulation to monitor all cell phones and communication platforms." - Confidénte also notes several other "fake news" stories that have spread throughout the country in the past year, including a rumor that the president Geingob was meeting with Kim Jong Un, and numerous ones circulated relating to the elections and SWAPO party factions the previous November.
- This article from the Confidénte talks about the publicity that fake news has received and provides a general description of what fake news is, noting that it can be created to "drive web traffic" and "for financial gain." More specifically, the article focuses on an announcement made by the Namibian Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology (MICT) cautioning citizens "against being creators and circulators of fake news."
Satire
In a 2015 study of the use of satire as a socio-political tool in The Namibian, the writers Linea Hamukwaya and Jairos Kangira note that "[d]espite the importance of satire, there seems to be a great scarcity of literature in Namibia. The scarcity generally applies to political commentary where there is a limited number of both socio-political commentators, and the lack of sufficient scholars who have dedicated their studies to the area of satire or socio-political commentary" (395). This article in particular examines the crafting and effects of "The Rambler," an anonymous socio-political satirical column in The Namibian. Hamukwaya and Kangira describe the satire of The Rambler as ambiguous: "characterized by statements that are open to misinterpretation... that consist of obscurity... and where he appears to doublespeak" (399)). They also note that he frequently uses rhetorical questions, and mixes his writing with slang, vulgarities, and vernaculars from Afrikaans and indigenous Namibian languages, although the primary language for content is in English. Code-switching appears to depend not only upon not who the target audience is, but also who the target of the satire is. For example, an article mocking white people may switch into Afrikaans, while an article targeting the president, Hage Geingob, may include Khoekhoegowab terms because he speaks this language.
The Rambler
How to Effectively Spend N$10 Billion This column from September 2018 criticizes the plans of the Namibian government to borrow N$10 billion from the Chinese by suggesting what the money should be spent on -- a presidential jet from Beijing because "what other way can we thank our eastern overlords than to hand them the money right back in exchange for opulence and unnecessary dross" or " a book[.] any book" for the Swapo Party Youth league secretary. Dear Unemployed Graduate This column, written as a letter to April 2017 grads, talks about issues they might face in the "real world," such as the ongoing housing crisis in Namibia that "the leaders your parents voted for" can't solve, the ongoing consequences of "the black tax," and general unemployment issues. |
|
America First / Namibia First
This video was actually published on YouTube by Gondwana Collection Namibia, which is a tourism company that primarily posts videos about travel experiences in Namibia. This video was supposed to be a response to the original video posted by the Netherlands; I included it for comparison with a similar video Austria posted in response. |
Additional Sources
Amupadhi, Tangeni. LinkedIn Profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tangeni-amupadhi-8995474/
"Gwen Lister | 2004 Courage in Journalism Award." International Women's Media Foundation. https://www.iwmf.org/2004/10/gwen-lister-2004-courage-in-journalism-award/
Hamukwaya, Linea & Kangira, Jairos. (2017). SATIRE AS A TOOL FOR SOCIO-POLITICAL COMMENTARY: A CASE OF THE RAMBLER'S SELECTED ARTICLES IN THE NAMIBIAN NEWSPAPER, 2015. International Journal of English language, literature in humanities. V. 393-426.
Peters, Annica N., Peters, Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, and Brian E. Mennecke, "Cultural influences on Facebook practices: A comparative study of college students in Namibia and the United States," Computers in Human Behavior, V. 49, 2015, p. 259-271, ISSN 0747-5632, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.065.
"Gwen Lister | 2004 Courage in Journalism Award." International Women's Media Foundation. https://www.iwmf.org/2004/10/gwen-lister-2004-courage-in-journalism-award/
Hamukwaya, Linea & Kangira, Jairos. (2017). SATIRE AS A TOOL FOR SOCIO-POLITICAL COMMENTARY: A CASE OF THE RAMBLER'S SELECTED ARTICLES IN THE NAMIBIAN NEWSPAPER, 2015. International Journal of English language, literature in humanities. V. 393-426.
Peters, Annica N., Peters, Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, and Brian E. Mennecke, "Cultural influences on Facebook practices: A comparative study of college students in Namibia and the United States," Computers in Human Behavior, V. 49, 2015, p. 259-271, ISSN 0747-5632, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.065.