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In 2012, civil society and the media reasserted itself with regards to the
need for an access to information law
in Namibia. At a groundbreaking conference held in August, all sectors of society
gathered to discuss access to information
as fundamental to freedom of expression, and how the lack of it negatively
influences them. Organised by MISA, in
partnership with the ACTION Namibia
Coalition, which consists of MISA Namibia, Insight Namibia Magazine and
the Institute for Public Policy Research
(IPPR), the two-day conference was preceded by a training workshop for senior
journalists in access to information.
A concerted multi-sectoral campaign
on access to information was launched
at the conference, and 2013 should raise
awareness on access to information as a
basic human right, and not only as a media freedom related issue. Government
has, despite several calls for the enactment of such legislation, procrastinated
drafting one.
The Law Reform and Development
Commission (LRDC) however committed
itself to act, and a legal drafters’ workshop should set the ball rolling in 2013.
We however need to ensure that we do
not end up with a Protection of Information Bill, as was the case in South Africa.
Namibia’s migration from analogue
to digital in line with the Roadmap for
Digital Broadcasting in SADC, seems to
be an easier process for the NBC than
commercial One Africa Television, and
this is mainly cost related. As a statefunded institution, the NBC has funding



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and resources available to migrate, but
the same cannot be said for One Africa.
The NBC also seems to set the migration’s tone, although it should be lead
by the multi-sectoral National Digitalization Forum, established by the Ministry of Information and Communication
Technology. This raises questions regarding conflict of interest, is it conducive for
the NBC to be both a player and a referee
in this process? It is argued that Telecom
Namibia is best placed to be a leader in
this process.
Initially, all indications were that
government will fund the migration, but
this seems to no longer be the case.
At the time of going to press, there
was no budget for the migration, and
stakeholders had no indication how
much it will cost them.
The SADC deadline for migration is
December 2013, while the International
Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) deadline is June 2015.

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The admirable freedom we have to
do our work seems to have to contributed to us forgetting the fundamentals
of journalism and the important role we
have as the Fourth Estate.
MISA Namibia is concerned by the
deterioration in quality and ethical journalism, this can be attributed to media
houses being more concerned with profit
margins than content, and the lack of
trained journalists, which leads to the
juniorisation of newsrooms.
Despite the provision of media studies at the two main tertiary institutions,

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