May Day media attack ruffles feathers

Vice-president Nangolo Mbumba's speech, delivered on his behalf at a Worker's Day event in Khorixas, has raised eyebrows, specifically with regard to comments he made about the media.

Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director Graham Hopwood expressed concern that Mbumba's speech, delivered by agriculture minister Alpheus !Naruseb, will set the tone for the government's approach in the run-up to next year's general elections.

“The vice-president's reaction to criticism appears to be over the top and is worrying. He should welcome and participate in debates around policy. False arguments put forward by his critics can always be rebutted and government has many platforms through which to do this, including the state-owned media and social networks.”

Hopwood said critical commentary and analysis of government policies are both necessary and normal in a democracy. He said serious critical engagement and debate was vital if Namibia was to have well-honed and effective policies.

According to him no sector of Namibian society should be expected to be automatically loyal or supportive of government.

“At the same time criticisms that are based on falsehoods or that are essentially just insults can be easily dismissed.”

Hopwood said government has become less tolerant towards the media these days.

“To use a favourite phrase of the President Hage Geingob, 'government should play the ball and not the man'. So government should dismiss and disprove questionable claims and arguments and not issue blanket condemnations of the media or label whole sectors of the Namibian society.”

Referring to the recent legal battle between the Namibia Central Intelligence Service and The Patriot newspaper, Hopwood said it was surprising that nobody senior in government attempted to stop the case from going ahead.

“It is bound to be embarrassing for Namibia internationally and lower the country's standings on the press freedom rankings.”

Mbumba said in his speech a classic example of side-tracking from the core mandate of pursuing economic freedom in Namibia is the current fruitless discourse of heaping the blame for all that's economically wrong on the government.

He said this has been advanced by a “small yet media-connected coterie of politically opportunistic people”, who seemed to have vowed to target the government and denounce it as everything but good and competent, “until it is brought down”.

“Together with some media houses, and on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter forums, this group has been chronically painting the sitting president in very dark colours. Under the disguise of the freedom of speech, they daily and weekly harangue, ridicule and character assassinate the character and the integrity of the sitting president, government and the ruling party, by misleadingly rehashing old stories or contriving fake news, to foster widespread hatred and discontent among the general Namibian populace.

“Through their actions they openly display their rejection of government's agenda for an inclusive, poverty free, transparent and prosperous peaceful Namibian House in which all Namibians have a stake,” Mbumba said.

Editors' Forum of Namibia (EFN) chairperson Joseph Ailonga told Namibian Sun the sentiments expressed towards the media by Mbumba were very unfortunate.

He pointed out that Namibia had already slipped to second place in Africa on the global press freedom index compiled Reporters Without Borders, after being number one on the continent for five years.

“It is bad when we take a position on the media or some media, without naming them, as this does creates an impression that all media is bad. Take issue with those media houses instead of labelling the media in such a light which makes it look like an attack on Namibian media without any facts.”

Ailonga said everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, however, just like the press notes the consequences of unethical freedom of speech and that it can be abused, politicians should do the same.

He said the fact that Namibia has dropped in the press freedom rankings means that there might be threats to freedom of speech in the country.

“We ask that the vice-president engage us to highlight the media houses that are degrading the president's name or are being political.”

Ailonga said Mbumba can also engage with the Media Ombudsman on the matter.

He said the statements made by Mbumba towards the media are accusations that require proof and only then can it be dealt with.

“We can all disagree on modalities, but provide the facts or evidence such as names of those media houses, the articles being referred to and so forth.”

Asked whether there is any truth in the statements made by Mbumba, he said he is aware of one media house which stems from political affiliates and that does not agree with Geingob on certain matters.

He however said many other media houses, “especially our members”, adhere to the code of ethics “and have not displayed any signs of playing the political card”.

ELLANIE SMIT