provide directly for training in the field of media and communication, something to which both the SADC Protocol and the ICT Declaration attach considerable importance. The training of media workers in Namibia takes place within several Government-funded institutions, such as the University of Namibia, the Polytechnic and the College of the Arts. However, there appears to be no policy framework in place to guide this training, as required by the SADC Protocol. Ethical standards With every right come responsibilities. In terms of the SADC Protocol and AC Declaration, the responsibilities of journalists exercising their right to free expression are enforced through codes of ethics that are agreed to by all stakeholders, and administered by a public complaints mechanism that should be both accessible to the public, and protected against undue interference. The AC Declaration considers self-regulation as the most effective way of promoting ethical media, although it further states that any complaints system should be administrative in nature, and should not usurp the role of the courts. Namibian media workers, under the auspices of the Namibian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), have taken the initiative to put in place a code of ethics, and a complaints mechanism overseen by a media Ombudsman. Unfortunately, the system appears to have become dormant, like similar self-regulatory mechanisms that preceded it. This is perhaps partly a result of a lack of capacity to run the mechanism and to promote public awareness of it, and also the reluctance of some media houses to recognise the mechanism. Interpretation of the 1971 Newspaper and Imprint Registration Act and the 1974 Publications Act, as amended by the 1982 Registration of Newspapers Amendment Act, suggests that this failure to recognise and adhere to such a self-regulatory mechanism could be illegal, although any prosecution in terms of this provision could well be unconstitutional, as well as in breach of the African Charter and AC Declaration. However, in terms of the SADC Protocol, States are encouraged to create an enabling environment for the establishment and strengthening of codes of ethics. While being mindful not to interfere in what should be an independent and self-regulatory mechanism, the Government could nonetheless facilitate a process whereby all parties come to agree to actively participate in, and adhere to the kind of self-regulatory mechanism envisaged in the AC Declaration. This would be done on the grounds that it is in the interests of all stakeholders, not least the general public, that an accessible, independent, selfregulatory mechanism for the print media is in operation. Meanwhile, it is not uncommon for broadcasting regulators to administer complaints mechanisms for the electronic media. Although the 1992 NCC Act - and the Draft Communications Bill that is set to replace it - does require the communications regulator to enforce certain ethical and professional standards for broadcasters, the law does not provide for any code of ethics to guide this enforcement, nor a public complaints mechanism. Even if these were provided for in the current and prospective laws, the lack of independence of the communications regulator would mean any such mechanism would not conform to the provisions of the AC Declaration. Registration of media and media workers Provisions within the SADC Protocol for the accreditation and registration of media workers have caused alarm among some organisations representing the media, even though the Protocol states that this accreditation system should “facilitate the work of such personnel”. Read together with the AC Declaration, there would be no justification for States to make a regional accreditation system – and it provides only for a regional system, and does not sanction national registration of journalists – anything but an enabling mechanism. In this regard, Namibia’s current requirement that foreign media workers must apply for a work permit before coming to Namibia on assignment is contrary to the SADC Protocol and AC Declaration in that it hinders the free flow of information over borders and thus subjects the right to free expression through media to undue legal restriction. Having said this, current Government procedures to register both Namibian publications and local journalists are purely administrative, and appear to conform to the SADC Protocol and AC Declaration. Namibia Media Law Audit – report final draft 37