Media freedom crucial, says info minister

Namibia’s information minister yesterday lashed out at the media, claiming that he does not oppose media freedom and had only sent out a warning for journalists to maintain high standards.
Minister of information and communication technology Tjekero Tweya accused the “sponswors” of last week’s media reports of “stooping so low” for claiming his proposed government media monitoring body was an “emerging threat to media freedom”.
He said the media reports did not take into account the fact that he had “mobilised all resources at my disposal including and not limited to media house … to craft a thorough Access to Information Bill …”
The minister said he “was duty bound to issue a cautionary note of the consequences against those who might prepare themselves to violate media ethics to a largely free access to information meant for the public good (sic).”
He added that “slanderous reporting and other progressive tendencies should not be used as tools” to gain a foothold in the market.
“It can never be denied that our colleagues in the media at many time have strayed into abusing this duty of informing, but violated people and institutions’ rights and characters,” he said.
Tweya yesterday reminded the public that the draft Access to Information Bill had been submitted to parliament and “it took a whole week to build consensus for the envisaged bill. This shows that government is committed to free media and access to it by all Namibians.”
He said the media have played a crucial role in disseminating government information and said that “without an unfettered environment for media freedom there will be no success in our pursuit of the noble cause for access to information.”
In his statement, the minister quoted article 21 of the Namibian Constitution, which guarantees “freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media”.
In addition, he quoted section 2 of article 21, which deals with reasonable restrictions of the article under relevant circumstances.
JANA-MARI SMITH