by: Vitalio Angula
Pillar One of the Harambee Prosperity Plan under the Responsible Social Media Deployment Perspective required the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to develop a Social Media Use Policy as part of the overall government communication strategy.
The use of social media was meant to supplement traditional communication.
There is, however, a growing trend among government offices, ministries, agencies, regional councils and local authorities using Facebook and WhatsApp as primary platforms for information dissemination, which excludes citizens who do not have smartphones, data or stable internet from accessing relevant information.
This unintentionally furthers the digital divide because government communication should reach all citizens, not only those on certain platforms.
The use of WhatsApp and Facebook, which are owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Group of Companies, raises security concerns regarding national sovereignty over public information, the dependence of the Namibian government on a foreign corporation for essential state functions (such as information dissemination) and puts the country at risk of policy changes, outages and/or censorship outside government control.
PROFESSIONALISM AND INTEGRITY IN GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION
A local daily recently reported on a purported Faux Pas involving Namibia’s Minister of International Relations and Trade, Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, who allegedly sent a text message to her Ghanaian counterpart seeking the commissioning of Ndiyapuki Nghituwamata as Namibia’s High Commissioner designate to Ghana.
Critics faulted the minister for not following diplomatic channels (written correspondence) for government-to-government communication.
Although not directly related, this diplomatic blunder magnifies the blurred boundaries between official government correspondence and peer-to-peer interactions.
WhatsApp and Facebook are social and informal spaces, and using them as the sole platform for official government information dissemination weakens the dignity and authority of state communication.
Using Facebook and WhatsApp ‘officially’ can also lead to misrepresentation and loss of context.
During the tenure of Hage Geingob’s presidency, a Governor of a region in northern Namibia is alleged to have accidentally shared pornographic material on an official WhatsApp group.
Using social media platforms as official government correspondence platforms increases the risk of casual forwarding of messages, which can be harmful when blunders occur.
As unfortunate as it was, this Faux Pas should have served as a wake-up call in reforming government communication standards.
For democratic governance, official communication must be inclusive, sovereign, secure, verifiable and legally robust, which requires a return to e-mails, government websites, official gazettes, public radio and television as primary platforms for information dissemination and not as secondary, which has become a trend in Namibia.
PUBLIC RELATIONS VERSUS GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION
Tjekero Tweya, Former Minister of MICT, is adamant that the government is required to deploy all available resources at its disposal to ensure all citizens have access to relevant government information in order to make meaningful and informed decisions to improve their livelihoods.
When Tweya launched the Namibian Government’s Social Media Use Policy and Implementation Plan, he clearly stated that, “the use of social media in government should not be seen as a replacement of traditional media but as a complementary tool to enhance information dissemination to the public”.
WHATSAPP GROUPS AND FACEBOOK PAGES
WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages are both very popular in Namibia; they do have their drawbacks and limits as far as information dissemination is concerned.
The ascendance of Netumbo Ndaitwah to the Presidency has seen the rise of Facebook pages belonging to Regional Governors and their offices using Facebook pages as the primary tool for information dissemination.
The recently appointed Regional Governors are relatively young and may see Facebook as a modern tool for information dissemination; however, their messages often become distorted and leave citizens abusing these platforms to spread misinformation amongst themselves in the name of freedom of speech.
INFORMATION AUTHORITARIANISM
The need to control the narrative on government WhatsApp Groups often results in Information Authoritarianism, especially when Public Relations Officers act as gatekeepers to information.
This can blur the line when a spokesperson’s personal attitude becomes confused with official government policy.
During the tenure of His Excellency Hage Geingob, Former Press Secretary Alfredo Hengari often drew the ire of journalists for his overzealous need to control the narrative even when there was no need to.
His attitude made State House an unwelcoming place for journalists, where Geingob’s constant rhetoric regarding freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information ran contrary to the behaviour of his spokesperson.
The use of social media as a tool for government communication is not solely about adapting to new technology but about power without institutional safeguards.
The Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Social Services has also been identified as an over-zealous gatekeeper who uses his authority as a group admin for the Ministry’s WhatsApp group to remove members, threaten access for unfavourable reporting and/or insist on only one approved interpretation of events.
While WhatsApp may be useful for rapid dissemination of information, its use by government spokespersons to police interpretation, suppress questioning and punish dissent amounts to information authoritarianism, which is incompatible with Namibia’s constitutional democracy.
Vitalio Angula is a socio-political commentator and independent columnist.
