Namibia
of people in high places not making themselves available for comment.”
It is important to take into account the difficulties surrounding access to public information in Namibia and how this impacts on the
media’s ability to report accurately and fairly.
There was the impression that analysis of issues had become more
shallow, however, and that the “focus was more on the person and
not the issue”.
Since Informanté is still a relatively new player on the media scene,
it remains to be seen how the generally sensationalist tabloid will
fare in terms of accuracy and fairness.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 3

Average score:

3.6

4.3

(2005 = 3.0)

The media cover the full spectrum of events, issues and
cultures, including business/economics, cultural, local and
investigative stories.

ANALYSIS:
There has been a substantial improvement in the media covering
the full spectrum of events in the last few years, particularly with
the emergence of specialist magazines and online publications dedicated to sports, economics, music and culture, for example.
Unfortunately most of these developments are centred in the capital, Windhoek. In this regard, it is particularly disappointing that
community radio stations have not taken off in rural areas to cover
African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

43

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