Namibia
Sector 2:

2.1

The media landscape is characterised by diversity,
independence and sustainability.

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 and distributed countrywide. It
has made an impact on the newspaper-reading public with its investigative and sensationalist stories.
There are seven commercial radio stations and four community radio
stations (four in Windhoek and one in Rehoboth), an increase from
the combined total of nine commercial and community stations in
2005. The national broadcaster, the NBC, has nine local language
radio services, as well as an English national radio station.
Interestingly, Radio 99 was sold to Democratic Media Holdings (DMH),
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African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

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