Namibia The recent NBC ‘Chat Show’ controversy was a notable illustration of how politicised and how weak the NBC board is. The NBC national radio ‘Chat Show’ was placed under severe restrictions at the end of April 2007 after callers had demanded that former president Sam Nujoma respond to allegations that he collaborated with the CIA. This raised much debate within civil society and government, with some politicians saying that the show allowed too much freedom of speech. The Minister of Information and Broadcasting then gave direct instructions to the NBC’s Director General Vezera Bob Kandetu, without going through the board, to alter the ‘open line’ format of the ‘Chat Show’ and restrict daily discussions to specific themes. A public uproar followed. Subsequently, the state broadcaster put control mechanisms in place to cut out on-air abuse. This involves producers/gatekeepers (up to then the host received calls without any pre-check) and delay devices for all language services, and the ‘Chat Show’ is now back to the normal ‘open line’ format. At no point during the ‘Chat Show’ controversy did the board issue a comment. The panel agreed that the NBC board is clearly very weak, divided and not independent, as it did not protect the DG. This incident demonstrated the fact that civil society does indeed have power and can rise up to effect change. It also showed the lack of proper training of NBC presenters and talk show hosts, many of whom are young and inexperienced. “To expose a young person [on air] with no delay device, no producer, to political callers … it’s a recipe for disaster.” It is worth noting that the same day that the NBC ‘Chat Show’ was curtailed, commercial station Radio 99 launched its own chat show. There was the impression among the panellists that this healthy competition may have been a factor in the NBC show being brought back on air as before. African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007 31