Mass media in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

includes radio, television, and online and print formats.

Overview

Although Namibia's population is fairly small, the country has a diverse choice of media; in 2010 two TV stations, 19 radio stations (without counting community stations), 5 daily newspapers, several weeklies and special publications compete for the attention of the audience. As of 2014, Namibia had 3 television stations, 13 newspapers, and 25 radio stations. Additionally, a mentionable amount of foreign media, especially South African, is available. Online media are mostly based on print publication contents. Namibia has a state-owned Press Agency, called

NAMPA The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the national news agency of the Namibia, Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after Namibian War of Independence ...

.Rothe, Andreas (2010): Media System and News Selection in Namibia. p. 14-96 Overall 500 journalists work in the country. Compared to neighbouring countries, Namibia has a large degree of media freedom. Over the past years, the country usually ranked in the upper quarter of the Press Freedom Index of

Reporters without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

, reaching position 21 in 2010, being on par with Canada and the best-positioned African country. The African Media Barometer shows similarly positive results. However, as in other countries, there is still mentionable influence of representatives of state and economy on media in Namibia. In 2009, Namibia dropped to position 36 on the Press Freedom Index. In 2013, it was 19th. In 2014 it ranked 22nd In 2021, Namibia ranked 24th in the world Media and journalists in Namibia are represented by the Namibian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Editors' Forum of Namibia. An independent media ombudsman was appointed in 2009 to prevent a state-controlled media council.

History

The first newspaper in Namibia was the German-language '' Windhuker Anzeiger'', founded 1898 by attorney George Wasserfall. It mainly reported on movements of the German imperial forces, the '' Schutztruppe''. After the establishment of the newspaper the German colonial administration used it as a

government gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...

. During German rule, the newspapers mainly reflected the living reality and the view of the white German-speaking minority. The black majority was ignored or depicted as a threat. During South African rule, the white bias continued, with mentionable influence of the Pretoria government on the "South West African" media system. Independent newspapers were seen as a menace to the existing order, critical journalists threatened.von Nahmen, Carsten (2001): Deutschsprachige Medien in NamibiaLinks, Frederico (2006): We write what we like: The role of independent print media and independent reporting in Namibia

Publications

Current daily newspapers are the private publications ''

The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (English and other languages), '' Die Republikein'' (Afrikaans),

Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Allgemeine Zeitung'' was the leading political daily journal in Germany in the first part of the 19th century. It has been widely recognised as the first world-class German journal and a symbol of the German press abroad. The ''Allgemeine ...

(German) and ''

Namibian Sun The ''Namibian Sun'' is a daily tabloid newspaper in Namibia. It was launched on 20 September 2007 as a weekly tabloid newspaper published on Thursdays. The initial print run was planned to be 36,000 copies. The paper publishes mostly in English w ...

'' (English) as well as the state-owned '' New Era'' (predominantly English). Except for the most widely circulated newspaper, ''The Namibian'', which is owned by a trust, the other mentioned private newspapers are part of the Democratic Media Holdings. Weekly publications are the tabloid '' Informanté'' owned by

TrustCo Trustco, or TrustCo, may refer to: * Trustco Bank, a bank in the United States * Trustco Bank Namibia, a microfinance bank in Namibia * Trustco Group Holdings, a JSE Limited-listed Namibian company {{disambig ...

, '' Windhoek Observer'', ''

Namibia Economist The ''Namibia Economist'' is a Namibian newspaper published digitally that focuses on local business and financial topics. It is published exclusively in English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may a ...

'', as well as the regional ''

Namib Times The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...

''. Current affairs magazines include '' Insight Namibia'', ''

Vision2030 Focus magazine Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...

'' and ''

Prime FOCUS A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternat ...

''. Monthly publications are ''

Sister Namibia Sister Namibia, formerly known as the Sister Namibia Collective, is a feminist nonpartisan non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Windhoek, Namibia. The organization was established in 1989 on the eve of the Namibia's independence from Sout ...

'' magazine, the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia and ''

Namibia Sport ''Namibia Sport'' is a sport magazine in Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswa ...

'', the only national sport magazine. Furthermore, the print market is complemented with party publications, student newspapers and PR publications.

Radio

Radio was introduced in 1969 with '' Radio Owambo'', an FM channel destined for the indigenous Ovambo people. However, people in Namibia already owned

short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...

radio sets to receive international channels, such that FM radio broadcasts were initially not widely received. Today the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is the public broadcaster and offers a "National Radio" in English and nine language services in locally spoken languages. The nine private radio stations in the country are mainly English-language channels, except for Kosmos 94.1 (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

) and Radio Omulunga (

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...

). ;Current
99FM - Namibia
* Kanaal 7/Channel 7 *

Katutura Community Radio Katutura Community Radio (KCR) is a community radio station based in Katutura, Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. History and mission KCR was launched in 1995, "with initial funding from a range of agencies, including UNESCO, which was instrumental ...

* JACC FM * NBC * UNAM Radio, University of Namibia
Radiowave FM
*Fresh FM *

Kosmos FM The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

*Eagle FM *NBC Local Language Raio ;Defunct * Voice of Namibia, 1966-1990

Television

Television service in Namibia started in 1981 with rebroadcasts of programs of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The service was at least a day late as the cassettes had to be flown in from South Africa, and it was available only in the capital Windhoek. Later TV was also available in

Oshakati Oshakati is a town in northern Namibia. It is the regional capital of the Oshana Region and one of Namibia's largest places. Oshakati was founded in July 1966 and proclaimed a town in 1992. The town was used as a base of operations by the S ...

and in Walvis Bay, and over time local content was added. Local TV Channels: * Namibian Broadcasting Corporation *

One Africa Television One Africa Television is a Namibian free-to-air television station founded in 2003. It was founded by Paul van Schalkwyk in 2003, which was the first private television network in the country. In 2020, it was bought by TribeFire Studius Group. ...

DSTV Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

Overview

History

Publications

Radio

Television

See also

References

Bibliography

External links