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media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
in
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
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 Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after independence under its current name ...
.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 The World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is an annual ranking of Country, countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002 based upon the non-governmental organization's own assessment of the countries' Freedom of the ...
of
Reporters without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
, 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 Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is a non-governmental organisation with members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. Officially launched in September 1992, MISA focuses primarily on the need to promote f ...
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 (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned a ...
''. 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 establish ...
. 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 Namibian'' is the largest daily newspaper in Namibia. It is published in English and Oshiwambo. History The newspaper was established in 1985 by journalist Gwen Lister as a weekly newspaper reliant on support of donors, which aimed to ...
'' (English and other languages), ''
Die Republikein ''Republikein'' () is an Afrikaans-language newspaper published daily in Namibia and the country's largest Afrikaans-language newspaper in terms of print circulation. Its editor-in-chief is Henriette Lamprecht. History The newspaper was founde ...
'' (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 ''Allgemein ...
(German) and ''
Namibian Sun The ''Namibian Sun'' is a daily newspaper in Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswa ...
'' (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, ''
Windhoek Observer The ''Windhoek Observer'' is an English-language Saturday weekly newspaper, published in Namibia by Paragon Investment Holding. It is the country's oldest and largest circulating paper. it had a circulation of 45,000 copies. The ''Windhoek Observ ...
'', ''
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. Its editor is Daniel Steinmann. First published in 1991, it appeared as a printed ...
'', as well as the regional '' Namib Times''. Current affairs magazines include '' Insight Namibia'', '' Vision2030 Focus magazine'' and '' Prime FOCUS''. Monthly publications are '' Sister Namibia'' magazine, the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia and '' Namibia Sport'', 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 The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu, mbadja), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama), are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily modern Namibia. ...
. However, people in Namibia already owned
short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...
radio sets to receive international channels, such that FM radio broadcasts were initially not widely received. Today the
Namibian Broadcasting Corporation The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) (, ''NUK;'' German: ''Namibische Rundfunkgesellschaft, NRG'') is the public broadcaster of Namibia. It was established in 1979, under the name South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC). Hist ...
(NBC) is the
public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...
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 languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
) and Radio Omulunga ( Ovambo). ;Current
99FM - Namibia
* Kanaal 7/Channel 7 * Katutura Community Radio * JACC FM *
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
* UNAM Radio, University of Namibia
Radiowave FM
*Fresh FM * Kosmos FM *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 The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...
(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 cities both by population and as an economic center. It had a population of 58,656 people in 2023. Oshakati was founded i ...
and in
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...
, and over time local content was added. Local TV Channels: *
Namibian Broadcasting Corporation The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) (, ''NUK;'' German: ''Namibische Rundfunkgesellschaft, NRG'') is the public broadcaster of Namibia. It was established in 1979, under the name South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC). Hist ...
* One Africa Television *
Network Television A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United ...


See also

* Telecommunications in Namibia * Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia *
Namibia Press Agency The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the national news agency of the Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after independence under its current name ...
* * Regional
Media Institute of Southern Africa Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is a non-governmental organisation with members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. Officially launched in September 1992, MISA focuses primarily on the need to promote f ...
, headquartered in Windhoek, Namibia * Windhoek Declaration of press freedom, 1991 *
Media of South Africa The mass media in South Africa has a large mass media sector and is one of Africa's major media centres. While South Africa's many broadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population as a whole, the most commonly used language ...
, some consumed in Namibia


References


Bibliography

* * * (Includes broadcasting) * * * *


External links

* *
DMOZ DMOZ or DMoz (stylized dmoz in its logo; from ''directory.mozilla.org'', an earlier domain name) was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were also known as the Open Directory P ...
. Namibia
News and Media
{{Africa topic, Mass media in
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...