Namibia manner. “You don’t have to interfere in the editorial policy when people are not doing any critical reporting. There is wide-scale selfcensorship among [NBC] journalists.” Because these young journalists do not want to rock the boat, and possibly lose their jobs, investigative journalism suffers. The reason for the high degree of self-censorship might also be that some key staff members are political appointees. There is the impression that the NBC does have some journalists capable of doing in-depth, professional interviews (notable when the opposition is in trouble) but this is not put into practice across the board. There was consensus that the degree of editorial independence differs among the various language services of the NBC. While the newsroom controls news centrally, the language services have a higher degree of independence when it comes to programmes. The formerly hard-hitting, investigative programme Open File, however, has been scaled down, resulting in more social commentary and soft stories. The tendency in television and radio news to give priority coverage to the activities of the president and ministers has been less evident since Pohamba became president two years ago. “There does seem to be more space ... The current president doesn’t have the same stature as Nujoma.” The NBC now covers news about the National Society of Human Rights, for example, something unheard of during Nujoma’s reign. The state broadcaster does appear to be bowing to commercial pressure, as is evident by local language news broadcasts being downgraded and shifted to a 07h00 slot the following day. In their place soap operas are now being broadcast. The NBC used to be a 24-hour station, but it now closes at 00h00 and opens at 06h00. This is pos34 African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007