SECTOR 1 1.11 Civil society in general and media lobby groups actively advance the cause of media freedom. Civil society in general, and media lobby groups in particular are not proactive in lobbying around media freedom issues. They tend to respond to events rather than pre-empt them. Many journalists seem unaware of the role that media lobby groups play, while “civil society does not understand freedom of expression and does not focus much on media”. “Before independence, civil society was active. Now they are not. After independence, it was up to media to inform civil society what the role of the media is. Civil society doesn’t understand the role of the media. Perhaps the media lobby groups need to carry out media literacy.” “The reason why we are so complacent as media workers is because our environment is so conducive. There is not much to do. But we don’t know how much longer we will be comfortable.” The media’s coverage of the Communications Bill only focused on the establishment of interception centres, and did not look at other aspects of the bill that affects free expression. Meanwhile, the relationship between the media and the rest of civil society is sometimes tense, “The way the media reports on issues alienates civil society. There are misconceptions within the media on what news they think people want to hear or read about, and civil society needs to engage the media on these issues.” For example, media misinformation has contributed to government and the public’s misunderstanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Having said this, some panellists pointed to the work of the Editors Forum of Namibia (EFN), which took the initiative to establish the Media Ombudsman, to whom the public can complain if they feel they have been misrepresented by the media. “I don’t think it’s the media lobby groups that are not active, but rather the journalists. The lobby groups have regular events, but the journalists don’t get involved. How much can they (the groups) do if we don’t support them? Besides which, a lot of people actively write letters and SMS messages to the newspapers, thereby asserting their right to free expression.” It was pointed out that the Media Ombudsman was about to embark on awareness-raising road-shows, which would promote the role of the Ombudsman and encourage freedom of expression. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2011 23