communications legislation. As a result, the Draft Communications Bill is poised to establish a single regulatory body for both broadcasting and telecommunications. This diverges from the path set by SADC which, in the two Protocols governing communications – the 1996 Protocol on Transport, Communication and Meteorology, and the 2001 Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport – envisages the separate regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications infrastructure (transmitters, cables, networks etc) and communications content (articles, programmes, web sites etc). Although the regulation of infrastructure and content has to work hand in hand, both have their own needs and priorities. As it stands, the Draft Communications Bill focuses primarily on the regulation of infrastructure at the expense of content – broadcasting content in particular. Consequently, the Bill fails to conform to the provisions of the SADC Protocols, as well as the AC Declaration with regard to the regulation of broadcasting. Therefore the Bill looks set to undermine the crucial role that broadcasting, as Namibia’s most accessible medium, has to play in the country’s development, and the promotion of free expression and access to information. Independence of boards and regulators Both the SADC Protocol and AC Declaration stress time and again the need for media and communication regulators to be independent of outside interference, particularly of a political and economic nature. Indeed, according to the 2001 SADC Protocol, editorial independence is the defining ingredient of independent media, which the Protocol and AC Declaration envisage to be the main vehicle for promoting free expression and access to information. However, none of the Boards of Namibia’s publicly-funded media, and none of the communication regulators is independent, by virtue of the fact that they are all appointed by and are accountable to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. This is perhaps the most glaring contradiction between Namibia’s laws and the SADC Protocol and AC / ICT Declarations that form the basis of this study. This contradiction is repeated in the pending Draft Communications Bill. Principles for ensuring the independence of media and communication regulators are laid down in the AC Declaration, which can provide the basis of the reform of existing and potential legislation. Public broadcaster As the medium accessible to most Namibians, the NBC has a crucial role to play in the promotion of free expression and access to information so essential to nation building and development. However, not only does the NBC lack genuine independence, it also falls short of other criteria for a public broadcaster laid down specifically in the AC Declaration. The NBC is not accountable to Parliament, as required by the Declaration. Nor is the NBC’s public service mandate clearly defined. By falling outside the authority of the broadcasting regulator, the NBC remains aloof from the broadcasting sector it rightly dominates, and unaccountable to the public it is supposed to serve. The fact that the NBC appears to be licensed in terms of apartheid-era legislation (the 1952 Radio Act) is indicative of the extent to which the national broadcaster falls beyond the ambit of contemporary norms and standards for public broadcasting. The Draft Communications Bill does nothing to remedy this situation. Rather, the Bill, as it stands, maintains that the NBC is not subject to regulation by the broadcasting regulator. Furthermore, the Bill is set to repeal the 1952 Radio Act, thereby severing the last strand of accountability the NBC has to the legislature and the public at large, other than by way of the annual Parliamentary debate on the Ministry of Information’s budget, under which the NBC’s State subsidy falls. The NBC is no ordinary parastatal, subject to a Government “shareholder”. For free expression and access to information to thrive, and thus for the NBC to fulfil its development role, the broadcaster needs to be granted the kind of independence and accountability to the public that is provided for in the SADC Protocol and AC Declaration. Regulated pluralism In the immediate post-Cold War era into which Namibia emerged an independent nation, free market liberalism was considered the antidote to authoritarian State monopolisation of media. Namibia Media Law Audit – report final draft 35