Namibia
landscape, there has not been a new and objective survey since
the seven-year-old Namibian All Media Product Survey (NAMPS). According to this survey, commissioned by the NBC, there are approximately 10 readers per copy of The Namibian, and seven to eight for
the other newspapers.
It is worth noting that during 2006, The Namibian and the Trustco
Group (publishers of Informanté) jointly launched a new printing
company called Free Press Printers. Although the company has experienced extreme technical difficulties with the press, which has
resulted in The Namibian being late on the streets a number of
times, this could be a positive development in light of the long-term
dominance of the printing sector by Newsprint Namibia, owned by
DMH, and John Meinert Printing.
While in urban areas there is a relatively wide choice of media, including imported newspapers and magazines, in rural areas access
to the media is severely limited, both in terms of availability and
affordability. In some areas there is no access to print media or the
Internet, and the NBC is people’s only source of information. Access
to the media is also limited by the fact that most publications are
published in English. Newspapers cost more than N$3 each, which
is unaffordable to most Namibians, and even the free-to-air NBC
can be costly in rural areas where batteries are the only source of
power.
Internet is also prohibitively expensive for most Namibians. A
number of players have entered the broadband sector, providing
high-speed, constant Internet connections nationwide. The country’s first cellular phone service provider, MTC, has also introduced
3G wireless Internet access in some areas of the country where
there is cellphone coverage.
MISA Namibia is busy with a media ownership survey.

14

African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

Select target paragraph3