Relieved because I had initially thought this was a speech delivered on the President's behalf, only to establish that Dr Kawana had 'done his own thing' in Pohamba's absence.

The ill-conceived content therefore, comes as no surprise.

THE topic of this year's World Press Freedom Day was 'media and good governance' and Dr Kawana would have done well to stick to the subject instead of opting for the classic Government avoidance tactic when it comes to the discussion of media.

And this boring litany of complaints from a man who spearheaded an earlier campaign to get a fourth term for former President Sam Nujoma, yet was enough of a political survivor to get the top job in the new incumbent's office and has the temerity to sound off about the 'shrine' that is our Constitution, which he would have been happy to fiddle with for his former boss! The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has done a lot of work to effect some rapprochement between Government and media and I'm seriously wondering now whether we aren't being totally misguided in these efforts.

What's the point, when a day of such importance as Press Freedom Day provides a forum for attacks on the press rather than a day to remember how media in various countries of the world have fought for these freedoms with many dying, suffering and being imprisoned in the process? Kawana allotted several pages to historic references to the slave trade and the injustices and looting by the colonials of African people and resources respectively.

No problem with that.

He went on to repeat the aims of the liberation struggle (as if some of us need reminding!) which included the fight by Namibians to determine their "destiny to live in economic prosperity ...

a destiny of equal opportunity for all ...

and a destiny of sovereign control over their natural resources" among others.

Yet instead of bemoaning the lack of good governance which, since Independence, has continued to deprive Namibians of such rights; and the selling out of this inheritance due to rampant corruption and theft, such as seldom seen before in colonial times or otherwise, let alone giving credit to certain media for being part of precisely that fight for liberation, chose to berate the media for lack of accountability, insensitivity to issues of national interest and/or racial harmony and lack of objectivity! The list goes on.

So rather than have the decency to at least take 'responsibility' (and we know how Government loves that word in relation to the media) for lack of governance and the fact that the majority of Namibians have not yet received their rightful share of their inheritance, the press is once again conveniently the whipping boy.

No one expects Kawana to lavish praise on our heads, but some acknowledgement for good works would have been only appropriate.

Several media practitioners fought for the very freedoms the media and public enjoy today; and since Independence, the media have been instrumental in good governance by, among other things, highlighting corruption.

And there has been balance, whether Kawana chooses to admit it or not.

While reporting on manifold instances of corruption, we at the same time have given support and encouragement to Government efforts to get some kind of anti-corruption mechanism off the ground.

We perform a number of important public services, not least of all for Government itself, and this even while a ban on advertising and purchase of newspapers remains in force against The Namibian.

We are an integral part of this society, and have been for decades, and are not some kind of alien institution put in place to pursue foreign agendas and witch-hunting of Government.

Quite the contrary.

If reporting on wrongdoing outweighs the praise, then that should be the signal for government itself to put its house in order, and in fact thank the media, for contributing to openness and transparency in our democracy.

International Press Freedom Day on May 3 each year (and even this fact could have been acknowledged, no matter how grudgingly, by Dr Kawana) came about as a result of a historical meeting in our capital in 1991 where Namibian media practitioners were very much part of the founding of the Windhoek Declaration, which in turn led to the UN declaring this day.

To sum up then, Dr Kawana and others in Government could give some credit where it is due to the media.

And finally, no, Dr Albert Kawana, the media are not a holy cow, but then neither are you or your Government!

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