Women journalists are not only attacked for being in the media space. They are attacked for being a woman. To mark International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March 2021, #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister talks to Zimbabwean journalist, researcher and free expression advocate Reyhana Masters, about the harassment of women journalists online and other forms of abuse which – according to a host of recent studies - appear to be worsening.

#FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister talks to youth leader Bertha Tobias and Dr. Phillip Santos, senior lecturer in the dept of communication at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), about how youth is mobilising online against socio-economic injustices. But what happens when the threat of regulation comes into the picture? Many governments look for excuses to regulate and even shut down the internet, and point to a radicalised youth abusing their free speech as the reason. So how does the youth beat back the attempts to silence dissent and use social media for the greater good?

Some have written off radio as media with a sizeable foot in the future, but the Afrobarometer 2020 survey disputes this, saying that radio is still the most powerful source of information, reaching more people than any other medium on the continent and is likely to remain so. With the 10th anniversary of World Radio Day on February 13, #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister talks to well-known DJ and producer at 99FM, Che Ulenga, and Levi Ngarune Katire, station manager at Omaheke (community) radio and Chairperson of the Namibia Community Broadcasters Network about their experience in this medium.

Public confusion and backlash around a WhatsApp update and concerns around data-sharing with its Facebook owners has resulted in them pushing back a privacy policy update. The data-sharing announcement prompted many users to flee WhatsApp and sign on to other messaging apps, like Signal and Telegram. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister discusses this latest controversy with digital rights activist and ACTION Namibia Coalition chairperson, Frederico Links.

Have you made the switch? Tell us why.

#DataPrivacy #BigTech

How can podcasts be used as a tool for (media) sustainability, advocacy and training? #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister discussed these and other issues with Director of Volume, Paul McNally. This episode was recorded during a three-day virtual conference on the ‘Future of Journalism Education in Southern Africa’, jointly hosted in December 2020 by the Namibia Media Trust, DW Akademie and MISA Malawi.

Is podcasting taking off in Africa? Let us know what you think.

#OmuuongeUozombuzeConference2020 #PodcastingAfrica

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a full-blown pandemic in Namibia. How Namibian media cover the scourge of GBV is one of the most urgent problems we face as a country. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister speaks with two powerful young women, youth leader Bertha Tobias, and journalist Ndapewoshali Shapwanale, who were themselves involved in the recent #ShutItAllDown protests where mainly women took the street in protest against GBV and femicide. Together they examine media coverage of the GBV and related issues.

For ordinary folk, it’s often difficult to know what’s fact and what’s fiction in this post-truth world. So media literacy, the ability of people to critically use media, plays an essential role in helping them navigate the information minefields that are out there. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister sits down with Jan Lublinksi, head of policy and learning at the Deutsche Welle Akademie and their coordinator for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in southern Africa, Lizette Feris - to talk about the state of media literacy in Namibia and other parts of the continent. Central to the discussion is Deutsche Welle Akademie’s just-released MIL Index, a report which covers media literacy habits in six African countries, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Namibia. The full study is available online at https://bit.ly/2G4vBQh

#ThinkBeforeSharing #MediaLiteracy

Self regulation is a pledge by quality conscious media professionals to maintain a dialogue with the public - a good way of describing the endeavor by newsrooms to abide by a code of ethics and be accountable to the public. With the formation of the Editors' Forum of Namibia, a Media Ombudsman was appointed to arbitrate complaints by members of the public who felt they hadn’t been dealt a fair hand by the fourth estate. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister sits down with Namibia’s Media Ombudsman Dr John Nakuta to talk about the concept of self-regulation – including the promise and the problems of this system.

Access to information (ATI) has been described as the ‘mother of all rights’, and there’s been a sustained push by civil society organisations since 2016 to get an ATI law in place in Namibia. We finally have a bill, due to come up in the next session of parliament, which we hope will soon become law. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister speaks with feminist, gender and human rights activist Linda Magano Baumann and Augetto Graig, a journalist with Republikein and member of the steering committee of the nascent Media Professionals’ Union of Namibia, about the principle of ATI and its resonance, or not, in the lives of Namibians.

It is only through an independent trade union that journalists will have a collective voice that can speak for them, independent of both governments and employers. Finally, a Namibia journalists union is on the cards in the form of the newly registered Media Professionals Union of Namibia (MPUN). #FreeSpeak's Gwen Lister hosts MPUN interim chairperson Jemima Beukes and working group member Kelvin Chiringa for a discussion on the union’s aims and objectives.