54 Although the bill under consideration was “jointly drafted by civil society and government,” (106) a coalition of civil society organisations in the country objected to some aspects of the new Access to Information Bill that was tabled in parliament in June 2020. IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC The Namibian government responded to the spread of the pandemic by putting in place measures that sought to control the spread of the virus in the country. These measures severely restricted human mobility and commercial activity for all but essential services. Journalism was classified an essential service and media organisations, in observation of these measures and out of their own initiative, organised their news work and operations in ways that sought to ensure the safety of journalists. Among other things, most journalists were now required to work from home, observe social distancing, wear face masks as well as sanitise and wash their hands. support where needed. However, this does not mean that journalists were not infected by the disease. (107) Following severe losses of revenue, some news media ended up shedding some of their workers which, predictably, raised the levels of anxiety in the sector. (108) Furthermore, at the height of the fight against the global pandemic, (109) government had been accused of only inviting the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC radio and television services), the Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) and One Africa TV for press updates. (110) The rest of the media houses were encouraged to get the feed from the NBC and NamPresidency social media handles. (111) DIGITAL RIGHTS These measures resulted in the decongestion of newsrooms and minimised exposure of journalists to infections during field work in the few instances that they had to go out for stories. Although there are concerns around the prevalence of unnecessary and disproportionate communication surveillance, reports by Freedom House suggest that Namibians enjoy digital rights. Statistics from the Internetworldstats (2019) indicate that there were 1,347,418 internet users by 31 December 2019. This represents approximately 53.0% of the total population. (112) In sum, Namibian news media took significant steps to protect their employees, in particular journalists, from infection and provided extra While these statistics are encouraging, it is noteworthy to highlight that penetration is lower in most rural and peri-urban areas due to