Mass

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

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.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 Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organisation's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to re ...

of Reporters without Borders, 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 fre ...

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 ...

''. 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 ...

'' (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 Dani Booysen. History The newspaper was founded by Di ...

'' (Afrikaans), Allgemeine Zeitung (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 Namibia Media Holdings (NMH, previously Democratic Media Holdings, DMH) is a publishing house in Namibia. Founded in 1992, it publishes three major Namibian newspapers, the Afrikaans-language '' Republikein'', the German '' Allgemeine Zeitung'', ...

. 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 weekly. it had a circulation of 12,000 to 13,000 copies. The ''Wind ...

'', ''

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, Daniel Steinmann is the editor. First published in 1991 it appeared as a printed ...

'', 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, Nami ...

''. Current affairs magazines include ''

Insight Namibia ''insight Namibia'' is a monthly journal published in Namibia. The magazine was first published in September 2004. Its headquarters is in Windhoek. It covers current political, economic and social affairs and is owned and edited by Tangeni Amupadhi ...

'', '' 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 Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

'', an FM channel destined for the indigenous

Ovambo people The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama) the biggest of the Aawambo sub-tribes are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Afric ...

. However, people in Namibia already owned short wave 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) ( af, Namibiese Uitsaai-Korporasie, ''NUK'') is the public broadcaster of Namibia. It was established in 1979, under the name South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC). History Radio was ori ...

(NBC) is the

public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

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). ;Current
99FM - Namibia
* Kanaal 7/Channel 7 * Katutura Community Radio * JACC FM *

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

UNAM Radio UNAM Radio is the radio station of the University of Namibia. It broadcasts on 97.4 FM and is based in Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, ...

, University of Namibia
Radiowave FM
*Fresh FM * Kosmos FM *Eagle FM *NBC Local Language Raio ;Defunct *

Voice of Namibia Voice of Namibia (VoN) was a pirate radio station propagating Namibian independence, and the political mouthpiece of the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) during the Namibian War of Independence. It operated from 1966 until Namibian ...

, 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 ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

(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 Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...

, and over time local content was added. Local TV Channels: *

* One Africa Television * DSTV

References

Bibliography

* * * (Includes broadcasting) * * * *

External links

* *

DMOZ DMOZ (from ''directory.mozilla.org'', an earlier domain name, stylized in lowercase in its logo) 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 ...

. Namibia
News and Media
{{Africa topic, Mass media in