Namibia
of these negotiations is not known.
Concern was raised that there is no independent radio news service
that collects local news for commercial radio stations. It was noted
that community radio is more progressive in this regard and that the
NCRN is busy with an initiative to network all community broadcasters, which could result in the sharing of sound clips, especially for
news.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2

Average score:

1.7

2.8

(2005 = 1.9)

Media diversity is promoted through adequate competition
regulation/legislation.

ANALYSIS:
There are no regulations with regard to cross-media ownership and
no legislation to prevent possible monopolisation in future. A Competition Act is still being drafted and the Communications Act is
not specific, as is the case in South Africa where the law limits the
number of radio or television stations that one individual or company is allowed to own.
Recent developments, particularly in terms of ownership patterns
in the media, show worrying signs of big business “extending its
tentacles” into the media. This is evident by South African media
giant News24 buying into DMH, and by the growing involvement in
the media of Trustco, originally a legal insurance company that now
has multiple business interests, as well as a popular and powerful
weekly newspaper (Informanté) and a printing press shared with
The Namibian. Trustco ran a game show on One Africa Television
20

African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

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