SECTOR 4 The Namibian newsroom staff, overall, comprises a diverse mixture of people, although the top three positions of editor, business manager and news editor, are all held by white women. The NBC staff, including senior management, are fairly diverse, with a balanced ratio of women and men, although the Director General has always been a man. The producers overall indicate a good gender balance. Very few white people are employed at the state broadcaster, however, and no white person sits on the board. “The NBC tries to comply with the Affirmative Action Act, but [like most media houses in Namibia] they lag behind in terms of people with disabilities.” Commercial radio stations continue to be mostly owned by white men, but there is a relatively good balance in terms of gender among presenters. The Windhoek Observer changed ownership in February 2009 and thus what had been a largely ‘white’ newspaper now has black owners and a black editor. While the newspaper’s copy had previously been written mostly by the founding editor himself, the new owners have since employed a number of journalists. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country minimally meets aspects of the indicator. 3 Country meets many aspects of indicator but progress may be too recent to judge. 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator and has been doing so over time. Average score: 3.3 (2005 = n/a; 2007 = n/a) 4.6 Journalists and editors do not practise selfcensorship. Analysis: There was a strong perception among panellists of self-censorship at the NBC, with journalists avoiding certain anti-government or anti-SWAPO issues for fear of losing their job or of other retribution from ‘higher up’. There are also perceived elements of self-censorship at the other state-run media establishments, AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2009 63