SECTOR 1 1.11 Civil society in general and media lobby groups actively advance the cause of media freedom. Analysis: A number of civil society and media lobby groups, including the Media Institute of Southern Africa Namibia chapter, the Namibian Editors’ Forum, the Namibian Society for Human Rights and the Legal Assistance Centre, all advance the cause of media freedom. This is done often in the form of press statements, letters to the press and press conferences. For example, when the NBC took the Chat Show off English national radio service, all these groups were very vocal in their criticism of the suppression of freedom of speech. Civil society in general, however, appears to have lost its sense of activism and energy so visible in the struggle for independence before 1990. “Civil society seems happy to have media freedom but would not go onto the streets to protect and support this freedom. With a few exceptions, the general public appears to be quite apathetic.” “In general, Namibians are complacent now. They feel they attained independence and they are home-and-dry. Even Workers’ Day is not about workers unity and their demanding rights: it’s become a political, SWAPO event.” One of the reasons for this complacency may be a lack of media literacy in the country. Many people are not aware of what the media is meant to do for society. Media lobby groups seems to be re-active rather than pro-active by educating the public about the importance of the media, rather than just defending the media when it is threatened. One panellist felt that MISA Namibia organises the annual media awards once a year and otherwise is “not very visible”. “However, as a lobby group MISA Namibia is effective in publicly responding to infringements on freedom of expression.” “The media is one of the elements that support democracy but the general public doesn’t see how the media protects our space and adds value to freedom of expression.” “Civil society seems happy to have media freedom but would not go onto the streets to protect and support this freedom...” 22 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2009 Nevertheless, the ways in which civil society has rallied to protect the SMS pages in The Namibian and objected to the suspension of the NBC chat show indicate that the public is realising the importance of the media.