Namibia
dent Nujoma, now president of SWAPO. Some critics claim
that as a result of this unresolved leadership issue, Nujoma
is in fact still running the country, through SWAPO.
•

The fact that there is still outdated legislation on the statute books and the sluggish process of implementing new
legislation. This could be a result of the weakness of the
legislature, with the executive dominating the parliamentary process and thus undermining much of the work the
legislature should do, such as the repeal of outdated laws
and the introduction of policies and bills, for example.

•

MISA Namibia’s apparent inactivity.

Some of the activities needed over the next few year:
•

MISA Namibia and the Editor’s Forum need to be strengthened and should be much more active.

•

A media council should be established as a matter of
urgency.

•

MISA Namibia needs to involve civil society more in its activities and lobbying. The Namibian chapter needs to lobby
for the creation of an independent broadcasting complaints
commission, a “people’s board”.

•

The media as a whole needs to be more active in informing civil society about issues of media freedom, freedom of
expression and human rights in general.

•

MISA Namibia and other institutions should prepare for intervention when the draft media policy is finally published.

•

Pressure should be put on the Ministry of Information and

African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

57

Select target paragraph3