SECTOR 3 and government. The following month, in March, the NBC’s Director General did indeed suspend the show. While programmes on the various language radio services seem to be “fairly independent, editorially”, especially in terms of reporting for actuality programmes, radio news broadcasts are centrally produced and tightly controlled, preventing individual radio stations from writing their own news bulletins. The English and the Oshiwambo services appear to attract the most interest from SWAPO, possibly because they have the largest listenership, and thus are vulnerable to a higher degree of political interference. “...But where is the public who demands that the NBC become a true public service broadcaster?” NBC TV news is seen as biased when covering political issues and current affairs, with certain political parties or organisations that are considered anti-government not receiving any coverage at all, or being portrayed in a slanted way to indicate a lack of public support for these parties or organisations. “The reason for this is probably because the NBC is funded by state money, so it won’t go against the government’s stance.” Another reason may also be the lack of sufficient equipment such as cameras and vehicles, which makes it difficult to cover simultaneous events, especially when one of them is an undisputed priority like a speech of the president. “There is widespread self-censorship at the NBC, with journalists being afraid to report on certain issues that contradict the stance of the government … Generally NBC reporters are trying to be independent. The problem comes from top management and the board, which are more susceptible to political pressure from higher up. This makes the reporter fearful of a reprimand from above.” There are some indications that things may change for the better at NBC. The General Manager for News and Current Affairs recently became a member of the Namibian Editors’ Forum, a body strongly committed to professional and ethical standards. In an effort to improve the standard of TV and radio news reporting, a training agreement has been signed with Swedish Radio, an independent public service broadcaster, with a special focus on the elections. The NBC also has an election task force and says it is committed to covering the rallies of all contesting parties in the run-up to the elections. “These developments show that the NBC is gearing up to become a real public service broadcaster. But where is the public who demands that the NBC become a true public service broadcaster? There is no picketing or toyi-toying outside the NBC offices.” 48 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2009