1.7 Civil society in general and media lobby groups actively advance the cause of media freedom. ANALYSIS: While lobby groups such as MISA Namibia and the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) are trying to advance the cause of media freedom, there was consensus that civil society in general is apathetic. While many violations of media freedom take place, civil society does not act, perhaps out of fear. Even the media themselves are not united in supporting their own media groups, such as MISA Namibia, because it is seen to be antagonistic towards government. While the letters pages in newspapers and radio chat shows are popular, few people go beyond verbal criticism of state action, issuing a press release, for example. Occasionally civil society will mobilise around an issue but this is usually momentary, and citizens rarely rise to the defence of broader democratic values. There has been a growing trend within the political sphere for young radicals of SWAPO, as well as other parties, to gag the press, “depending on what they are told to say”. SCORES: Individual scores: 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 3, 3 Average score: 3.1 (2005 = 2.8) Overall score for sector 1: 2.8 (2005 = 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 (The Namibian and New Era in English, Die Republikein in Afrikaans and Allgemeine Zeitung in German), four national English weekly newspapers (Informanté, Namibia Economist, Windhoek Observer and SWAPO’s mouthpiece, Namibia Today) and the bi-weekly coastal newspaper, Namib Times. According to The Namibian, its current circulation is 25 900 on Mondays to Thursdays (up from 24 500 in 2005) and 40 000 on Fridays (up from 34 000 in 2005). The free national tabloid Informanté states that it prints 70 000 copies a week. There are no confirmed figures for other newspapers. There are approximately 10 magazines in Namibia, a substantial increase from the four in 2005. It is also encouraging to note how young people are increasingly developing their own print and Internet-based magazines. Informanté, initially published by the Trustco Group as an in-house publication, was launched as a fully-fledged weekly tabloid in September 2006 So This Is Democracy? 2007 -198- Media Institute of Southern Africa