The NMT Media Foundation says despite Namibia having one of the strongest constitutional frameworks for media freedom on the continent, press freedom remains “unfinished business”.
In a statement issued on 30 April, executive director Zoé Titus says Namibia’s media environment is marked by a structural distance between the form and the substance of media freedom.
Titus says while legal protections exist, there has been a consistent failure to give those frameworks operational force, creating conditions where journalists are constrained without direct state repression.
The statement raises several concerns, including an Access to Information Act that has been law for three years but remains entirely inoperative.
It also points to the absence of an editorial independence clause at the national broadcaster, as well as a lack of independent regulatory oversight and the continued existence of criminal defamation and sedition laws.
“These are not minor administrative gaps, but a structural distance between the form and the substance of media freedom,” Titus says.
According to the foundation, these conditions create structural pressures for self-censorship that do not require a single arrest to function.
Titus says this limits the ability of journalists to fully exercise their role in holding power to account.
The statement comes as Namibia prepares to commemorate World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
The foundation says Namibia carries a particular responsibility as the birthplace of the declaration, saying that the key issue now is whether there is sufficient political will to ensure press freedom is realised in practice.
According to the 2026 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Namibia ranks 23rd globally and second in Africa.
Globally, the index shows press freedom at its lowest level in 25 years, with more than half of the world’s countries classified as having a “difficult” or “very serious” situation.
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