Namibia
their country.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2

Average score:

2.8

2.5

(2005 = 2.9)

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
African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007

17

Select target paragraph3