Online Newspapers, Live TV Channels, Radios

The media outlets of Namibia are relatively free to operate inside the country. They are made of television, newspaper, radio and the internet. Almost all the outlets have their own audiences and they can run their own business without experiencing so much trouble from the government. Usually, in the African subcontinent, the media outlets are highly dominated by the government and other quarters. So, it is often challenging for them to operate their activities independently. But the scenario is altered in the country.

But, in some points, the media outlets are subject to self-censorship. The media outlets are not allowed to publish or broadcast any such events or information which prove harmful to the country. In fact, this is a moral duty of the media outlets to uphold the dignity of the nation. And so, they do not publish or expose any information which may be detrimental to the nation’s improvement. As a result, they follow a self-censorship. This is a kind of good practice for them indeed. And when the censorship is violated, media outlets are threatened. This practice is more common to the state-run media outlets.

The readership of newspapers in the country is not so high due to the illiteracy rate. The newspapers are available in different languages. But some local dialects are also applied to the newspapers and other media outlets. The mostly desert country is thinly populated and the media outlets have covered almost all the populations. So, the media outlets are able to reach all the populations at the same time.

The media history of the country is enriched and the constitution ensures the media freedom to a certain extent. Some of the newspaper and other media outlet editors are active to ensure the complete press freedom in the country. Though the environment is congenial enough, they want more freedom to express their thoughts and emotions through the press.

Some of the media outlets are owned by the government while the majority of them are run by the private initiatives. The private media outlets are owned either by the individuals or by the business corporations. But in both the cases, the media outlets try to ensure transparency to the certain level regarding publishing and broadcasting news and information. Earlier, the media outlets were restricted to many extents from dissemination of information. The Internal Security Act took care of the issues. Even, the news collection was a hard task for the journalists. But the days are gone now.

Around 15 newspapers are available in the country. And most of them run their operation in English. The print media outlets mostly contain generalized information of home and abroad. And they also try to be aware of the censorship issues. So, they do not publish or broadcast and any piece of news and information that could be harmful to the country. Most of the newspapers published in English language and they are from private initiatives. But some of the newspapers are also available in local languages as well and their number is limited.

The number of television channels is three in the country. They provide a huge number of interesting contents. Earlier, the television channels used foreign contents to hold attraction of the audience but the present days has seen a change. The majority of the contents are locally produced and they are enjoyed by a wide number of audience. The television channels provide entertainment and information to the people.

The number of radio stations in the country is over 20. Radio is one the popular media outlets and accessible to all. The stations provide a huge number of contents to cater needs of the audience across the nation. In fact, this is the primary source of information to the audience.

The use of the internet is also prevalent in the country and mostly the youths are the users. They use the internet to know about the happenings of the world and communicate socially among them using the social networks.