SECTOR 3

that since President Pohamba took power, coverage of opposition parties and
views had become fairer. Panellists felt that with 2009 being an election year, and
with the arrival of Minster of Information and Communication Technology, Joel
Kaapanda, earlier in 2009, this approach had altered, so as to present SWAPO in
the best possible light.
NBC radio appears to be more neutral than its TV counterpart, apart from the
centrally produced news broadcasts and chat shows that seem to be often hosted
by pro-SWAPO facilitators without professional training in radio journalism.
The main news bulletin on NBC TV is in English and was moved up to 19h00
from its previous 20h00 slot in 2007 when competing One Africa started its
bulletin at 19h30. As a result, indigenous language news broadcasts (two a day of
half an hour’s duration each) are now only screened between 07h00 and 08h00 the
following morning, meaning that viewers of these bulletins get old news and the
audience reached is much smaller at this time of day. There are no Afrikaans (or
German) news broadcasts on NBC TV, although Afrikaans is more widely spoken
in Namibia than English.
There is concern that the Namibian people are being denied foreign news in the
broadcaster’s TV and radio bulletins, although the English national radio service
does broadcast unedited BBC news feed at midday.

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country minimally meets aspects of the indicator.

3

Country meets many aspects of indicator but
progress may be too recent to judge.

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator.

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator and has
been doing so over time.

Average score:			

2.2 (2005 = 2.4; 2007 = 2.4)

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2009

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