Namibia: A Critical Reflection on the Postapartheid Mediascapes in Namibia

Namibia attained its independence from South Africa in 1990. The country is generally known for its high press freedom rankings in sub-Saharan Africa. This chapter examines the state of the Namibian media landscape. Postapartheid Namibia has witnessed the emergence of a particular kind of journalism culture shaped by context-specific political, economic, and cultural factors. The chapter explains how processes such as marketization, democratization, liberalization, digitization, and platformization have contributed to a polarized pluralist media system where the private media focus on watchdog journalism, while the public media are beholden to lapdog journalism. It shows that although there is media pluralism in Namibia, media concentration as evidenced by vertical and horizontal integration in the print and broadcast sectors has affected the realization of media diversity. The chapter also shows that the Namibia media sector, like that in other countries, has been affected by financial sustainability challenges and the lack of a profitable business model.