SECTOR 4 appears to be wide age range represented in media houses. In terms of religion, non-Christian religions are not really represented within the media, while the NBC appears reluctant to appoint a female Director-General. Having said this, a lot of senior management positions at the national broadcaster are filled by women. In this regard, “the NBC is unique” as most of the country’s media managers are men. “There are so many training programmes for women, but commercial radio stations don’t send people. Commercial radio stations don’t want to build the capacity of their female journalists. At the same time, female journalists don’t understand patriarchy and how the system disempowers them. Therefore we are adding to the problem by allowing our male bosses to disempower us.” One panellist pointed out that, until recently, the editor and news editor of The Namibian were both women, “but their coverage of women was perhaps the worst”. There is a need for editors and senior journalists to be made more aware of gender issues. Added another panellist: “The voices we hear on the radio are just men.” Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 2.4 (2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: n/a) 4.5 Journalists and editors do not practise self– censorship. Journalists and editors do practise self-censorship, depending on the media house to which they belong. Editors at New Era and the NBC, for example, are more inclined to avoid offending government and the ruling party. Each media house takes its own slant. Political stories tend to be re-written by editors to have a particular slant. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2011 59