WINDHOEK, Sept 16 (The African Portal) – Reporters’ participation in the upcoming regional and local authority elections has raised concern over potential bias and conflicts between political activity and media objectivity.
This comes as some reporters have expressed their intention to participate in November’s elections.
A reporter who is an active member of Swapo spoke to The Namibian on condition of anonymity last week, saying if he made it, he would recuse himself.
Landless People’s Movement spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa says the party is concerned over reporters affiliated with certain political parties as they may be biased in their reporting.
“This leads to a situation that breeds unethical conduct or biased reporting. Even if they are not writing bad stories, they may be one-sided in writing about the glorious work of a political party.
“There will also be ignorance of the flaws in certain political parties due to such a relationship with a journalist,” he says.
Simataa says it is a problematic situation and reporters running for elections should recuse themselves.
All People’s Party secretary general Venitus Goraseb says Article 17 (2) guarantees that every citizen who has attained the age of 21 years has the right to be elected to public office.
“The Constitution does not bar journalists as citizens from seeking political office, however, it is cited that clear boundaries between journalism and politics are necessary to safeguard Namibia’s democracy against conflicts of interest and institutional mistrust,” he says.
Former member of parliament and Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) central committee member Yvette Araes says journalists are the watchdogs of society, and are expected to report facts without bias.
When a journalist joins a political party and campaigns for an election, the lines between objective reporting and partisan advocacy could become blurred, she says.
“While in PDM we have had a similar situation where a well-known journalist wanted to pursue or rather venture into politics. Since then she was appointed by the president of the party to the parliamentary list.
“In my personal opinion this undermines public trust in the media as a neutral arbiter,” she says.
Araes says voters may question whether election-related stories are influenced by personal political ambitions rather than journalistic integrity.
Contacted for comment, senior reporter Sonja Smith, who is 10th on the PDM’s National Assembly list, yesterday said she is no longer a PDM member.
She was a PDM researcher for the last administration and currently works for Network Media Hub.
United Democratic Front Khorixas councillor Sebastiaan !Gobs says if a journalist quits their job to focus on politics, whether they can be endorsed to become a candidate depends on their political party.
Journalist Julia Nekwaya last year switched to politics after being elected PDM Youth League secretary general. Former deputy minister of information and communication technology Modestus Amutse was an NBC reporter before joining Swapo and being elected Oshikuku constituency councillor. He is now a member of parliament.
Credit: The Namibian
