24. Technically the NCC could allocate up to 32 frequencies. There was consensus that the NCC’s management style is haphazard and appears to favour commercial stations over community stations. A few years ago the last available FM broadcasting frequency in Windhoek was given to Radio France International, which broadcasts mostly in French, rather than to a local radio station. Katutura Community Radio (KCR), which was off air for a number of years, has been resuscitated, although its good frequency was taken away by the NCC in the process and given to commercial radio station, Radio Energy. The existing legislation regarding the NCC and its powers does not cover the public broadcaster and is very vague about community broadcasting. Commercial and community radio stations are not compelled to broadcast local news, with the result that they mostly play music but do not provide Namibians with information about their country. SCORES: Individual scores: 4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2 Average score: 2.8 (2005 = 2.9) 2.5 Community broadcasting enjoys special promotion given its potential to broaden access by poor and rural communities. ANALYSIS: Although the NCC stipulates that community radio stations should enjoy special support, this has never been put into practice except for the fact that NCC licence fees for community broadcasters are considerably lower than those for commercial broadcasters. The NCC does not protect community broadcasting by specifying the role and number, for example, of community radio stations. Apart from Live FM in Rehoboth, there are no community radio stations outside Windhoek which serve poor and rural communities in Namibia. Live FM provides more of a social role than that of a community forum, as it mainly broadcasts music, religious programming, advertisements and community announcements. There are attempts to maintain the Namibian Community Radio Network (NCRN), which is being co-ordinated by MISA Namibia and which is the only organisation providing support, training and networking for community radio stations. The NCRN, based at MISA Namibia, has been beset by sustainability and capacity issues. The Minister of Information and Broadcasting has been pushing for community radio stations and the government is currently doing a study about setting up such ventures. The government’s interest in this sector could lead to ‘community’ radio stations pushing the government’s agenda and being controlled by the state. As the four existing community radio stations broadcast predominantly in English, they appear to be failing dismally when it comes to diversifying and empowering people to communicate in their own language. It was felt that the lack of motivation in Namibia to set up community radio stations might be a result of the NBC’s nine local language radio services fulfilling the role of community broadcasters. So This Is Democracy? 2007 -201- Media Institute of Southern Africa