Namibia

(MISA/IFEX) – A journalist and a cameraman from the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) have both been charged with trespassing after they were allegedly assaulted, on 23 June 1998, by the manager of a private Catholic school they were doing a story on. The two NBC employees, Unomengi Kauapirura and cameraman Hadley Mwashekeleh, have since laid […]

(MISA/IFEX) – According to MISA, on 14 April 1998, a cameraman for the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was assaulted by a local businessman while filming a group of managers who were being interviewed about an industrial strike in Windhoek (the capital city). Cameraman Hadley Mwashekeleh was punched in the face and his spectacles were broken […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 19 February 1998, Hannes Smith, the jailed editor of the Namibian weekly Windhoek “Observer”, was granted bail pending the outcome of an appeal against his conviction for contempt of court and sentence of four months’ imprisonment. Smith has now been released on a US$220 bail after seven days of incarceration. He has […]

(MISA/IFEX) – According to MISA, Hannes Smith, editor of the Windhoek weekly, “The Observer”, has been committed to a Namibian prison for failing to produce confidential documents to a coroner conducting an inquest in the 1989 assassination of political activist Anton Luboswski. Judge Nic Hanna ordered Smith’s imprisonment in Windhoek on 13 February 1998, after […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 4 October 1997, a journalist working for the state-run Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) was run over by a police vehicle, killing him instantly. Peterkings Nkoma, 24, was killed along the Katima Mulilo-Rundu main road in northern Namibia where he worked as a regional reporter. The officer driving the police vehicle had attempted […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Speaker of the National Assembly Mose Tjitendero is to go ahead and table a resolution in Parliament that will broaden existing powers to enable parliamentary committees to subpoena people and force them to reveal sources of information. However, Tjitendero has also recognised the right of journalists to protect sources, and says this right […]

(MISA/IFEX) – MISA member the Journalists Association of Namibia (JAN) has written to the Speaker of Parliament, Dr Mose Tjitendero, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss legislation which can be used to force anyone – media workers included – to reveal their sources of information. In particular, JAN wishes to discuss with the Speaker and […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The Journalists Association of Namibia (JAN) has launched a campaign against a self-empowering motion which has implications for freedom of speech and of the press. The Namibian Parliament wants to move a motion to empower itself to subpoena and demand sources of information from members of the public, including the media, as and […]

A community-based radio station, Katutura Community Radio (KCR), which has been on air for more than a year, has been told by the licensing authority it must move frequencies or else close down after a new commercial station targeting KCR’s township audience was allocated a frequency just 0.3 megahertz (MHz) away from the community broadcaster. […]

On 6 July 1996, about six thousand angry music fans attacked and injured three members of a television crew when South African pop music band Boom Shaka failed to turn up at a scheduled concert in the capital, Windhoek. Angry fans stole one and irreparably damaged two television cameras belonging to the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation […]

**Updates IFEX alerts dated 26 and 23 April 1996** The National Council in the Namibian Parliament has scrapped two controversial clauses in the Privileges and Immunities Bill, saying that they are “unconstitutional” and run contrary to Article 21 of the Constitution which guarantees freedom of the press as well as freedom of expression.

**Updates IFEX alert dated 23 April 1996** Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob says that he will scrap clauses in a new bill that conflict with constitutional guarantees of press freedom if the bill is referred back to the National Assembly. The bill is currently being debated by the National Council, and if the National Council […]

Draft legislation currently being debated by Namibian law makers could outlaw the deliberate or unintentional publication of “false information” on Parliament and its proceedings. The Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Bill, which has been passed by the National Assembly and is now being debated by the National Council, would also make it an offence for […]

**Updates IFEX alert dated 27 March 1996** The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has refused to release video footage to a German television crew which wanted to make a programme on the holding of truth commissions in Namibia and South Africa. On 29 March 1996, the crew, which works for the German television station ZDF, sought […]

**For background, see IFEX alerts dated 30, 24, 1 September, and 24 August 1994 A freelance photographer was arrested and fined for trespassing in the early hours of 18 August 1995 when attempting to photograph the clubbing of seals during Namibia’s controversial annual seal harvest. Photographer John Liebenberg was held for several hours at Cape […]

**For background to previous incident, see IFEX alert dated 14 June 1995** Video footage in which a minister made controversial comments about a newly-formed political party went missing from the archives of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), prompting two senior producers to resign because of what they termed “political interference.” Executive Producer of Television Current […]