thing is that a public outcry must be organised, and it wasn’t. This is an indicator that civil
society and media groups are not that active.” When government departments were banned
from buying the Namibian and government stopped placing any advertisements in the paper,
there was no public reaction at all.
SCORES:
Individual scores:
Average score:

4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2
2.8

Overall score for sector 1:

3.2

Sector 2: The media landscape is characterised by diversity,
independence and sustainability.
2.1

A wide range of sources of information (print, broadcasting, internet)
is available and affordable to citizens.

ANALYSIS:
There are four national daily newspapers (two in English, one in Afrikaans and one in German), three weekly newspapers, approximately four magazines. According to the latest NAMPS
(Namibian All Media Product Survey), done in 2000 or 2001 and commissioned by the NBC,
there are approximately ten readers per copy of the Namibian and approximately seven to eight
for the other newspapers. Presently the Namibian says it prints and circulates 24 500 copies
from Monday to Thursday and 34 000 copies on Fridays.
There are nine commercial or community radio stations. The national broadcaster NBC has
nine local language services in addition to the (English language) national radio and TV.
In urban areas there is a relatively wide choice of media, but in rural areas the access to media
is severely limited, both in terms of availability and affordability.
In effect this means that in some areas Namibians have just the NBC as their only source of
information and no access to the print or the Internet at all. Language is another factor that
limits access to print media published in other than local languages.
A third factor is the cost of dailies at a price between two and three Namibian dollars which is
not affordable to most people. Even the NBC, a free to air medium, comes at a cost in rural
areas where people have to buy batteries and travel to the nearest farm stall to buy them. This
can easily add up to 50 Namibian dollars a month.
Internet is extremely expensive, as is the subscription service DSTV at a rate of N$ 400 per
month.
SCORES:
Individual scores:
Average score:

So This Is Democracy? 2005

2, 3 2, 4, 5, 4, 4, 3
3.4

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Media Institute of Southern Africa

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