At that time DMH was approaching bankruptcy and a manager with a professional administrative background was hired to rescue the company. Although DMH is still owned by a group of DTA members, the Republikein is now de-party-politicised to a certain extent and has become a much more professional newspaper. In the case of the state controlled New Era, ministers regard themselves as owners and therefore call the editors regularly. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 4.6 2, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 3 3.0 Salary levels and general working conditions for journalists and other media practitioners are adequate to discourage corruption. ANALYSIS: Generally, Namibian journalists working in private media are earning good salaries compared to many neighbouring countries, with senior journalists getting about N$ 12 000 a month. Junior journalists and those working in state controlled media, however, receive much less. Journalists on the payroll of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting earn between N$ 4000 and N$ 4500, with NBC staff receiving generous fringe benefits in addition Freelance journalists sometimes get exploited. The honorarium for reading the news at the NBC, for instance, is N$ 100 to 150 before tax deduction. Despite this mixed picture and apart from a few exceptions, “brown envelope journalism” as it is practiced in other countries where journalists get paid for covering – or not covering – a story is unknown in Namibia. SCORES: Individual scores: 3, 2, 3, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 Average score: 3.6 4.7 Training facilities provide programmes for journalists to upgrade their skills or acquire new skills. ANALYSIS: The University of Namibia offers a four year full-time journalism course. At the Polytechnic of Namibia journalists can study towards a diploma part-time while working. NBC used to have the best funded training programme in the region after independence. Deutsche Welle and BBC provided courses at NBC on a regular basis. Journalists were sent overseas to get qualifications. But most of these programmes failed because the best trained people then tended to move swiftly to other employment outside the corporation. Now the training department has been closed. As a result young broadcasters, among them graduates from UNAM and the Polytechnic, entering the NBC have no guide, mentorship or in-house training and thus no chance to develop in the profession other than through on the job experience. So This Is Democracy? 2005 -240- Media Institute of Southern Africa