Frank Steffen now chairperson of the Editors Forum
The Editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung, Frank Steffen is the new chairperson of the Editors’ Forum of Namibia (EFN).
Steffen sailed through after Ronelle Rademeyer declined nomination to the position and preferred to serve her last two years in office as EFN secretary general.
Steffen succeeds Joseph Ailonga who was at the helm for the past four years from 2015.
Others elected to executive committee position at the AGM held on Friday alst week and overseen by Media Ombudsman John Nakuta, are Peter Denk, Executive Producer at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), as vice chairperson, and Chief Executive Officer of TribeStudios, which houses both One Africa Television and 99 FM, Stefan Hugo, as treasurer.
Denk takes over from Wilfried Hähner Chief Executive Officer at Hitradio Namibia while Hugo takes over from Christof Maletsky, former Managing Editor at The Namibian.
Rademeyer will continue as SG for another two years. Shadowing her in her last two years will be Charles Tjatindi acting News Editor at The Namibian.
The EFN ExCo of Ailonga is credited with increasing the visibility of the EFN during its tenure and fighting for co-regulation as stipulated under Section 89 of the Communications Act, (Act 08, 2009). Two submissions of note were made to the Communications Authority of Namibia (CRAN) in 2016 and 2017 on the broadcasting code that CRAN intended to introduce to regulate broadcasters. The EFN strongly rejected this move by CRAN.
The EFN is soon to submit a request to CRAN and government, to allow it to co-regulate as per Section 89 of the Communications Act.
It was noted by the 2019 AGM that the incoming EFN executive committee does not reflect diversity or a gender balance as per Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development.
Incoming chairperson Steffen pledged to make this a priority by requesting all EFN members to have representation on the EFN executive committee and nominate their senior female editors and journalists to represent their respective organisations.
His second pledge was to seek financial support for some key projects under the office of the Media Ombudsman currently headed by John Nakuta.
