IT has always been our conviction, as we have so numerously stated, that the private and public media, or state-owned media as we have been labelled, can co-exist. The market space is big enough to engage in fair competition without self-posturing, demeaning attacks. However, not responding to the constant verbal missiles from The Namibian, as with the last “Off Tangent” column, would be to allow outsiders to define the character and mandate of New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC), a mandate which, in principle, has been sanctioned by Parliament, as well articulated in the NEPC Act No. 1 of 1992. Those days of our character assassination and bashing and for the assassins and bashers to expect us to suffer in silence, are long gone.
The Namibian’s sponsors, whoever they are – and we are sure the public would like to know who they are – are doing everything in their power, even usurping what is supposed to be public space and voice, as this newspaper has often been posturing for the agenda of its sponsors, and it could not have chosen a better candidate to do its dirty work than their “chosen one”. And this hidden agenda is to wish the non-existence of NEPC, Namibia Press Agency and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation so that it could have a free hand in advancing the hidden agenda of the anti-establishment malaetis of its neo-liberal sponsors.
In this quest it seems to be jumping and hopping from one column of the newspaper to another.
It first started the half-baked tirades in the editorial column now to change gear lately into another column titled “Off Tangent” against its “chosen” punching bag. And it could not lately have chosen a more appropriate column for the malicious and vengeful vitriolic of its sponsors and their neo-liberalism – an euphemism for hidden and subdued self-ordained superiority – than this latest column, “Off Tangent”. True to the title of the column, the sponsors and their front people have gone off tangent. “Off Tangent” can be defined as “to pursue a somewhat related or irrelevant course while neglecting the main subject”.
The first sign of this “off tangent” impulsiveness by The Namibian and its sponsors is that lately in their “Off Tangent” senselessness and schizophrenia, they are hinting at “an attack” by New Era on them. In its response, there was nowhere that New Era attempted to attack – let alone attacked or cast aspersions on the integrity of The Namibian. The NEPC simply responded to what it considered to be trigger-happy verbiage of factual misrepresentation directed at its flagship publication, New Era. We stand by that account.
Like any facet of the Namibian society, private or public, the NEPC cannot claim immunity from accountability. The fact that we are an accountable institution does not mean that we must remain silent in the face of ill-motivated, ill-informed and misinformed fabrications. NEPC shall not remain silent in the face of unwarranted and misguided verbal tirades.
In the true spirit of the Windhoek Declaration, and pluralism and diversity of the media, and of course within its mandatory mandate, NEPC shall continue to fulfil its mission of informing the Namibian public by striving at producing publications based on fact – with or without the approval of The Namibian. We contend that The Namibian is perfectly entitled to its own opinion. New Era and Kundana are dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of the truth for its own sake.