Requiem for the Namibian journalist

Mondays, I find, is always a good day to start contemplating issues. An issue which has come to fore in my mind is one that will, eventually, affect each and every Namibian for many years to come: The absolute dearth of good Namibian journalists coming up from where they were trained.

Of course, there are exceptions like in any field of endevaour.

Yes, I know, there are a number of really good Namibian reporters, media specialists, journalists or whatever they would want to call themselves ... but most of these are getting on in years.

Look at the names of good Namibian journalists ( you won't have to look far) and you will see that most of them will never see their thirties again, while quite a few are well into their roaring forties and beyond.

That all points to one unpalatable truth: They will be retiring at some stage in the not too distant future

Others have left for foreign shores and still others have joined the more lucrative PRO circus (sorry: circuit).

The above means only one thing: Something is about to seriously distort this picture of wholesome, indigenous and local journalistic expertise: the importation of more and more foreigners in recent time.

Look at our print media. Except for the Republikein and the Allgemeine Zeitung, there is not one newspaper that does NOT have at least one Zimbabwean, Zambian or a journalist of another country in the region on its staff. The Namibian, The Namibian Sun, Informanté, The Namibian Economist, New Era and, of course, that paragon of regional journalism, the Southern Times.

ALL have one or more Zimbabwean or other SADC journalists among their permanent staff.

A good friend of mine who shall remain nameless, of course, tells me that some of the short lists compiled by the newspapers after a recruitment drive contain not one Namibian name.

Some of the editorial offices contain more foreigners than Namibians

At no stage do I doubt the experience and the training of these people from another country. Most, if not all, are well educated, well-trained and have that news sense which distinguishes a good reporter from a hack. They only thing they lack - at least for the first year or so - is the insight into Namibian affairs.

That very same friend, however, tells me that the dross the Namibian tertiary institutions are sending into the big, wild and wonderful media world with a wonderful 3 or 4-year certificates are not worth even using as runners.

Graduants with one of the above certificates don't know how to put together a proper English sentence, can't spell to save their lives, have no vocabulary to speak of, know nothing about Namibian history, politics, the social scene or even the names or faces of prominent Namibians.

They also cannot put together a simple report from a press release and are a dead loss when it comes to doing research for an assignment. Send them to an event, they also do not know the most basic of media tricks: collect the speeches and make notes.

This malady does, probably, not only affect the print media. The electronic media is equally affected. If one listens to what people are saying, at least 80% of the staff of OneAfrica TV are ex-NBC employees. Even NAMPA, the venerable news agency, cannot be excluded.

Now if, as the saying goes, the rats are leaving or have left the sinking ship, what is left?

Where does that leave Namibian journalism? In the doldrums ... and all the while the so-called learning institutions keep on churning out half-trained cannon fodder that will not survive the first year unless they are molly-coddled all the way.

Poor, poor Namibia!