they want. And they conveniently forget that the same government who they are insulting is the one [that] provided the platform for them to do this,” Hakaye claimed. “When I came across the many writings of Ya Nangoloh, mostly in the biweekly Windhoek Observer, I said to myself, this is… uncalled for and unwarranted. Don’t we have a law in this country to regulate these, the human rights body, the Windhoek Observer, The Namibian, and the likes?” Hakaye said in the National Council. In another instance of bullying, One Africa Television news journalists were prevented from filming and taking photos of the arrival of the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, in Windhoek. According to journalists who were present at the airport, only state-owned media were allowed to film the arrival of the Angolan President at close range, while others were cordoned off and kept at a distance. Legislation Adding to the increasing intolerance and moves towards censorship, many observers have noted that while Namibia enjoys “relative” media freedom, many restrictive and draconian laws from the apartheid era have not been repealed by Parliament. These laws continue to impact on media freedom. In terms of Section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act, a magistrate is authorised, at the request of a public prosecutor, to require any person likely to give material or relevant information concerning an offence to attend before him or her for examination by a prosecutor. Section 189 of the Act empowers a magistrate to enquire into any refusal by any person to answer any question put to him or her and to sentence that person to imprisonment if there is no just cause for refusing to answer the questions. The Protection of Information Act, which imposes secrecy requirements on civil servants, inhibits the free flow of information. Even though media freedoms are provided for in Article 21 (1) (a) of the Namibian Constitution, this guarantee is subject to Article 21 (2) which provides for specific permissible restrictions on these freedoms. In addition, the guarantee is also subject to Article 22, the general limitation clause for all rights and freedoms entrenched in the Bill of Rights. Furthermore, the various acts that establish the Government funded media and the Namibia Communications Commission make provision for the Minister to appoint the governing board. This clearly influences the independence of the boards. Namibia does not have access to information laws that enable journalists to get the most trivial of information from a Government department. The process can sometimes become quite cumbersome as the Permanent Secretary of a particular Ministry must authorise the release of information. It has now also become fashionable to misuse the sub judice rule. When officials do not want to comment or release information to a journalist they simply say that the matter is sub judice regardless of whether the matter is currently being heard in a court of law or not. Apart from this and disturbingly, a study by the MISA Secretariat amongst 58 journalists and Members of Parliament indicated that 75 per cent of journalists have only a vague or incorrect understanding of what access to information means. Hundred per cent of MPs gave a vague So This Is Democracy? 2007 -65- Media Institute of Southern Africa