An investigation about the media ownership, funding and code of ethics in Namibia

Abstract

This study pursues the correlation of how.Namibia's media ownership, affiliates sponsors and or advertisers as well political interference subtly exert pressure on editorial content as such influences challenge the media code of ethics and 'cadre deployment' at both management and board levels. This research discovered that the Namibian media is very selective in what II it chooses to cover, mostly opting for 'juicy' topics that sell, rather than covering all types of news, including NGO issues. Additionally, investigative reporting is minimal as journalists q are afraid of consequences from the state in particular if it involves reporting of sensitive topics like corruption. This study further learn't that the standard of reporting in Namibian media is not fair especially in state media, and often inaccurate. Newspapers tend to publish n articles biased in favour of the owners and sponsors or affiliate advertisers of the newspaper. The Namibian media have a habit of dominantly focusing on political news, followed by sports. Despite crimes against journalists in the country basically being unheard of, some lawsuits for defamation of character against journalists as well as independent media q publications public complains to the Media Ombudsman remain. This research recommends that the media in the free Namibia should deliberately be patriotic in their coverage of national news and move away from the inherent personal bias in the process.