edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Part II Namibia: Multilingual Content and the Need for Organizational ChangeStatus of the OrganizationLegal Framework, Governance and EthicsNBC operates on the basis of the Namibian constitution whichguarantees freedom of speech, but its governance structurelacks concrete evidence of its independence. When thecountry celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015, it will rightlycelebrate its level of political freedom and a degree of freedomof speech that is unprecedented in most parts of Africa.Nevertheless, some constitutional provisions remain that potentiallypose a threat to the freedom of expression of freelyoperating media, in particular a lack of legal protection forinvestigative journalists and whistleblowers. Moreover, theconstitution contains ‘limitation clauses’ that come into playwhen the protection of national security, public order or suchvague concepts as decency or morality are endangered. 24 Furthermore,there is no law guaranteeing access to informationheld by public authorities. And the fact that defamation is acriminal offence under common law in Namibia has resultedin various civil suits against investigative journalists; the substantialfines imposed discourage journalists from fulfillingtheir watchdog function. As one interviewee said: “We havenever had a strong, investigative journalism in the country.” 25For the governance of NBC in particular, one law is of specificimportance. The 1991 Namibian Broadcasting Act (NBCAct) constitutes the basis on which the state broadcasteroperates to this day. Several analysts and even the Director-General of NBC himself argue that the NBC Act is hopelesslyoutdated and is urgently in need of legislative renewal. Accordingto the Act, the main objective of the broadcaster is to“inform and entertain the public of Namibia, to contribute tothe education and unity of the nation, to provide and disseminateinformation relevant to the socio-economic developmentof Namibia and to promote the use and understandingof the English language.” 26 As several non-NBC intervieweespointed out, the broadcasting legislation does not include aguarantee of editorial independence, nor does it provide for agovernance structure that could be called ‘open, transparent,and free.’ NBC is a parastatal organization: it is supervised andcontrolled by a group of senior executives who make up theBoard of Directors. All Board members, including the NBC’sDirector General as the chief executive officer, are appointeddirectly and exclusively by the Minister of Information andCommunication Technology (MICT) 27 for a five year term. 28Albertus Aochamub has been Director General since August2010, a longevity which is a novelty in NBC’s recent past,as the corporation has muddled through a constant leadershipcrisis for at least a decade. 15 different director generals haveheaded the corporation in the 24 years since independence,with the highest degree of instability from 2000 to 2010.As a result, many day-to-day issues were not dealt with. Forinstance, until recently NBC lacked a department for the collectionof licence fee revenues, which resulted in less than 50percent of possible income being realized in this field. 29 Andthe corporation still lacks a publicly available editorial policy,setting out standards for reporting and documenting its editorialindependence. NBC has endorsed a journalistic codexunder the supervision of the Editors’ Forum of Namibia (EFN):It and another 16 Namibian media outlets have signed up toa Code of Ethics that calls on the signatories to observe thebasic principles of quality journalism, especially accuracy,fairness, independence, protection of sources, considerationfor the right to privacy, and others. A complaints procedurewas established, handled by a Media Ombudsman, 30 for casesof misconduct. “Especially among the journalists, there isa striving for more accuracy and objectivity in their storiesbecause they don’t want people to make complaints.” 31 In anongoing process, the Communications Regulatory Authorityof Namibia (CRAN) asked the signatories to the self-regulationmechanism to extend the Code of Ethics to become a “BroadcastingCode” that goes into more detail within the field ofdigital media. Whilst this would have been a welcome opportunityfor the NBC to reflect on its own editorial policiesin general, the corporation remained passive in this process,which constitutes a missed opportunity.Capacity Building and Human ResourcesIn particular in the field of human resource management,NBC has seen extraordinary deficiencies in the past decade,with improvements in professional management from 2012onwards. This statement is endorsed by practically all stakeholdersinterviewed for this study – up to the NBC’s own DirectorGeneral. 32 For years, training and training capacities in localownership had been virtually non-existent at NBC and, asone interviewee said: “When they had to rationalize, the firstdepartment that they closed was the training department.” 33Not surprisingly, program editors with key responsibilities forthe successful day-to-day running of the corporation complainthat they were never offered basic research training norany advanced courses – with notable effects on the quality ofbroadcasts. If there was any training in the past at NBC, saysthe corporation’s Head of Training, then it was often done ina “vacuum” without practical use for day-to-day operations.From 2012 onwards, a more stable governance structure underthe current director general allowed for a restart of trainingactivities. Instead of a well-established training scheme,however, the corporation has so far relied mostly on “gap24See Namibian Constitution,§ 21 (2).25Natasha H. Tibinyane, NationalDirector, MISA Namibia.26Namibian Broadcasting Act,1991 (Act 9 of 1991), § 3.27http://www.mict.gov.na/28NBC 2014.29Albertus Aochamub, DirectorGeneral, Namibian BroadcastingCorporation (NBC).30http://www.mediaombudsmannamibia.org/index.html31Clement Daniels, MediaOmbudsman of Namibia.32Albertus Aochamub, DirectorGeneral of NamibianBroadcasting Corporation (NBC).33Emily M. Brown, Head of DepartmentMedia and Technology,Polytechnic of Namibia.Edition DW Akademie In the Service of the Public 79