A few days later, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Doreen Sioka made the unprecedented suggestion that the parliamentary privilege of the media should be curtailed. Sioka said the media should be prohibited from reporting the names of MPs, who are implicated in alleged corrupt activities by an opposition MP. The independent media also came under attack from several members of the National Council. Newspapers were accused of, among others, being misleading, abusing their rights and serving as agencies of other countries. A call was made for the imposition of restrictions on the media, especially the print media. New minister Former Women Affairs and Child Welfare Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah replaced Nangolo Mbumba as Minister of Information and Broadcasting in President Pohamba’s first cabinet. In her first meeting with media representatives, she expressed the view that “accountability is not high on the media agenda” and that she would like to see a change in this regard. NandiNdaitwah gave the assurance that she is a firm believer in the constitutional provisions of freedom of information and freedom of the press, but her repeated emphasis on greater professionalism and accountability raised fears that legislation could be introduced if the media failed to establish a media council and agree to abide by a code of ethics. Divided we stand … Much to her credit, Nandi-Ndaitwah actively supported and encouraged closer co-operation between her ministry and the state-owned media, and MISA Namibia. As a result, representatives of the ministry, the state-owned media and MISA Namibia jointly planned the commemoration of the 2005 World Press Freedom Day. The extent to which relations had warmed was illustrated by the fact that Prime Minister Nahas Angula was the keynote speaker at MISA Regional’s Annual Press Freedom Award ceremony. Unfortunately, independent media houses which have shunned MISA Namibia in the past, notably the Republikein and the Windhoek Observer, continued to do so. And the impasse seems likely to continue. Media ethics under the spotlight Media ethics suffered a blow when a weekly ‘knock-and-drop’ newspaper, Plus, published an anti-Semitic advertisement following the death of Nazi-hunter Simon Weisenthal. Editor Hans Fedderson’s apology and explanation that he accepted the advertisement for financial reasons found favour with few. The publication in the Windhoek Observer of distasteful photographs of the headless corpse of a murdered woman also raised a debate around media ethics in the country. Editor Hannes Smith responded to a media release issued by MISA Namibia with an unwarranted and highly personalised attack on the local chapter’s chairperson, Robin Tyson. The Windhoek Observer published several more gruesome photographs shortly thereafter in an apparent show of defiance. African Media Barometer A test run of the African Media Barometer, a joint project of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Southern African Media Project and MISA, was held in Namibia in May 2005. So This Is Democracy? 2005 -89- Media Institute of Southern Africa