SECTOR 4 “Journalists tend to remain respectful, polite and friendly and this makes it difficult to get to the bottom of issues.” New Era and Nampa with journalists covering government and SWAPO uncritically. In Namibia the distinction between the government and SWAPO is very unclear, and the terms are often used synonymously. The editorial opinion pieces in the New Era often tackle international rather than local issues, “to avoid trouble”. “When the state is the employer, either the journalists will censor themselves or the editors will spike certain stories, such as those that are critical of the government.” Journalists from all media houses appear to lack assertiveness when interviewing politicians and thus fail to ask challenging questions on burning issues. “Sometimes it is very difficult to be straightforward with politicians and elders. Journalists tend to remain respectful, polite and friendly and this makes it difficult to get to the bottom of issues.” Journalists sometimes face the challenge of either reporting thoroughly and possibly losing a valuable source, or censoring themselves and keeping the source. Commercial radio stations tend to avoid local political news because of possible controversy, and many of the issues they focus on are frivolous nature. Self-censorship around political issues does not appear to be a big problem at The Namibian. “Because The Namibian is an independent newspaper it has the advantage of being able to be critical of, among other things, the government. It does not have to go out of its way to make the government look good, but at the same time it does also publish positive stories on the work of the government.” The Namibian has been known not to deal with issues that might reflect negatively on the publication itself. It does, however, publish letters and SMSes that are critical of the newspaper. 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: 64 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2009 2,9 (2005 = 2.5; 2007 = 2.8)