Members of Namibia’s national assembly called for action against the state-owned biweekly New Era because of its reporting and its editorial views. The paper was verbally attacked during a debate on the budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information, and Broadcasting. Ponhele ya France, a member of Parliament for the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), accused New Era of “misinforming, distorting and misleading the public.†Ya France called on Tuliameni Kalomoh, the acting minister for information and broadcasting, to bring New Era to order. Kalomoh concurred that the paper was not doing its job as a government publication. Though the government eventually made some changes to the paper’s board of directors, sources in Namibia reported that New Era was still taking a fairly independent editorial stance at year’s end.
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