SECTOR 4 from government. ‘Sometimes, this is because of bureaucracy and hierarchy issues. And oftentimes, government simply doesn’t respond or takes days or even weeks to do so.’ ‘I’m thinking of the predicament in which journalists find themselves when writing a story and those implicated are not willing to respond. Especially with members of the ruling party, for example. When the SG [secretary general] is not responding to the journalist, what do you expect?’ ‘What happens is the story is written without their response. And a week later, the ministry or affected institution will publish an advertorial correcting the story. 20,000 NAD [1,377 USD] later, they have their correction and the papers are probably laughing at all this.’ One panellist noted that at The Patriot, it is editorial policy to wait for all the facts, to try to have three voices on a story and to provide time for people to respond – to ensure that a full picture with verified facts is what is published. It was noted however, that daily newspapers do not have the same luxury, given their daily grind. This was seen as a compromise of their integrity. ‘There is a difference in reporting between dailies and weeklies. In the dailies, it feels like you’re reading a court case and judgment is being passed.’ With regards to fairness and bias, one panellist noted that ‘sometimes, you see a clear political position not necessarily on an issue, but on a person’. ‘There are some papers whose editorial policy reflects issues around the owners’ proximity to power.’ Panellists noted that this is particularly evident during the run-up to elections. ‘To the credit of NBC, last year they allocated equal time to all political parties to motivate their manifestos, as part of an internal policy of NBC. Even took it as far as providing coverage with the political parties on internal election issues.’ ‘This is a step in the right direction, but we are talking about free election coverage. News coverage is a different story. For example, you’ll have a news story about the president, but he has a SWAPO scarf around his neck.’ A panellist also noted that ‘There is a perception, for example at the Office of the President, that certain newspapers are targeting the person of the president. The Namibian, for example, gets a lot of flak on the issue of the president, but Geingob went out saying he wanted to be the most honest, transparent, etc president. And in holding him to account, a counter-narrative then gets developed, with the perception that they’re being unfair to the president. I don’t think The Namibian has an agenda against the president.’ On the issue of bias, one panellist noted with concern the way in which Namibian media report on the Chinese. ‘There is definitely a negative bias and sometimes the tone is outright racist.’ 48 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2018