Namibia March 2007, is also majority owned by a parastatal, NamPower. SCORES: Individual scores: 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 2, 1, 1 Average score: 2.0 3.5 (2005 = 1.3) The public broadcaster is accountable to the public through a board representative of society at large and selected in an independent, open and transparent manner. ANALYSIS: The NBC Act of 1991 is based on old South African legislation and places the public broadcaster under the supervision of a board appointed by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. The first board of the NBC after independence was appointed in a more independent manner, but this is no longer the case. Civil society has been passive about this change in policy and allowed it to happen; therefore it has to take part of the blame. Some members of the panel had the impression that the NBC was losing credibility, viewers and advertisers. “The irony is that if the NBC board was independently appointed and representative of a wide cross-section of society, that would go a long way to regaining the trust and confidence of the public and advertisers, and would serve to strengthen the public broadcaster.” It was shown, however, in the last Afrobarometer analysis that there is an extremely high level of trust in the NBC, “more so than in the independent media”, and that it is therefore a pity that the public broadcaster is not independent and more representative of the people. The board is seen as neither credible nor representative because its members are political appointees. 30 African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007