(MISA/IFEX) – On 2 May 2000, members of parliament (MPs) in Namibia’s National Assembly called for action against the country’s state-owned newspaper, “New Era”, because of its reporting. The calls came during the debate on the budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, which is responsible for “New Era”, the Namibia Press […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 2 May 2000, members of parliament (MPs) in Namibia’s National Assembly called for action against the country’s state-owned newspaper, “New Era”, because of its reporting. The calls came during the debate on the budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, which is responsible for “New Era”, the Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
Ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) party MP Ponhele ya France called on the acting minister concerned, Tuliameni Kalomoh, to state what the “minister was trying to do to bring ‘New Era’ to order, to comply with the Act [in terms of which the newspaper was set up] in order to bring it to order [and to] stop ‘New Era’ from misinforming, distorting and misleading the public.” Ya France compared “New Era”‘s reporting to somebody “biting the hand which feeds you,” amid shouts of “New Era” Managing Director Sankwasa James Sankwasa’s name from the SWAPO benches.
Responding to the comments, Kalomoh said the ministry was aware that “something is seriously wrong at ‘New Era’ because they have lost their mission”. He said “New Era” was set up to “propagate” the government’s mission, but was not doing so. “We are taking corrective measures to make sure that ‘New Era’ chooses the [voice of the people],” he said.
Ya France also wanted to know “what the minister and the NBC have done to discipline the undisciplined journalists” who took a camera from the National Assembly chamber to cover an opposition party press conference more than two weeks ago.
Kalomoh said that no disciplinary action would be taken against the journalists as they had recommitted themselves to doing the jobs they had been assigned to do.
Background Information
On 12 April, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Gabriel Shihepo called an NBC television and radio news crew out of a press conference convened by the opposition Congress of Democrats (CoD) in its parliamentary offices. The three journalists – news reporters Immanuel Usiku and Lapaka Ueyulu along with camera operator Breschniff Katjaimo – had earlier been covering proceedings in the National Assembly but then left to cover the CoD press conference after the CoD MPs had walked out of the assembly. Shihepo, who was accompanied by two police officers at the time, reportedly indicated to the three that they had no business covering the CoD press conference. NBC Director General Ben Mulongeni later said that disciplinary action would be taken against the journalists.
