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

detect a kind of lethargy in Namibian civil society vis-á-vis itsstate broadcaster: “I feel sometimes we became too complacentas Namibians, we are not pushing hard enough from thecivil society.” 51In the eyes of many analysts, NBC to date remains a “statebroadcaster,” if not a “ruling party broadcaster.” 52 The representationof Namibian civil society within the NBC steeringcommittee remains fragmented – it certainly does not reflectthe complexity of Namibian society. The five current BoardMembers come from the corporate business community, thenational telecommunications company, the Namibia LiteraryTrust and the Christian community, which by and large is nota representative cross-section of the Namibian public. 53 Financialturmoil, obscure decision-making processes, a lack ofcredible distance to government interests, and some seriousproblems with journalistic quality have further damaged theacceptance of the state broadcaster as the “voice of the peopleof Namibia.” 54Public Service: General FunctionsWe will use the following pages to evaluate the different publicservice functions NBC may or may not fulfill. In doing so, onehas to keep in mind the peculiarities of Namibia, namely thesharp contrast between the capital region and rural areas, thevariety of ethnicities, and the particularly high percentage ofNamibians living below the poverty line. Seen from this perspective,the public service functions of the NBC can be assessedas follows:Creating a Public SphereOne of the key functions of public service media is to providea platform for political debate, occasionally setting the agendaand confronting officials with critical questions from thepublic, thereby fostering accountability. To a large extent, saymost impartial observers, the NBC in its current form does notprovide space for such a ‘forum of national debate.’ Thus, thebroadcaster is often criticized for its reactive news programming.Or as one interviewee argued: “I tend to believe that theNBC follows the government agenda, I don’t see them settingthe agenda.” 55 Even though NBC TV does have political talkshows such as “Talk of The Nation,” “One on One” or “The WeekThat Was,” many local interviewees have argued that controversialdebate remains excluded from the broadcast reality. Inconsequence, what is discussed in the public domain is mostlikely an agenda as set by government officials or by a ministryspokesperson. International analysts 56 and local media stakeholdershave similarly suggested that in particular the currentpredominance of state-owned media in Namibia makes anycriticism of those in power problematic, or as one intervieweenoted: “Self-censorship is a big, big problem because the majorityof journalists are working in government institutions.” 57Looking at both sides of the story is a guarantee of balancedreporting: This basic principle of public service media be-comes something of a balancing act in the Namibian context –in particular with regard to national television. Or as one intervieweeput it: “The stories are not stories at all, but theyare press releases from the government.” 58 In short, many Namibiansdoubt that NBC currently acts as a reliable vehicle forunbiased information and diverse perspectives. Often, singlesource reports are broadcast, critics argue, featuring the pointof view of the current government exhaustively but with littleor no airtime given to opposing views that might be of equalinterest to the public. In the words of a leading NGO member:“They simply say nothing about what we are saying, they simplydon’t broadcast that. But once a minister says somethingagainst us, immediately that’s a headline.” 59International observers have also referred to the currentNBC commercialization strategy as potentially dangerous forits editorial independence – this time from the business angle.In other words, the state-controlled broadcaster might, on itscurrent path, find itself trying to overcome financing shortagesfrom the national budget by taking on business intereststhat will inevitably interfere with its public service mandate.With regard to biased reporting, NBC is confronted withwhat observers are calling a crisis of confidence and trustworthiness.In reality, this translates into a scenario whereordinary citizens in urban areas (with alternative media athand) already read between the lines when consuming newsand current affairs products from the state broadcaster. Alternatively,such ‘informed parts of society’ sideline the statebroadcaster completely, consuming media with a reputationfor independent journalism, such as the national daily The Namibian,or, amongst younger Namibians, the blogs “Free yourMind” or “Spoken Word.” The MediaMetrics study (2010) suggestsNBC nevertheless remains the most popular TV channelin Namibia with – on average – 1.1 million possible viewersat a given time. The same data from opinion polls show thatOneAfrica TV was estimated to have around 400,000 viewerson average. 60 In particular with societal multipliers, the smallcommercial rival OneAfricaTV has a much better standingand reputation than NBC. 61However, as far as NBC radio and its different languageservices are concerned, some observers state that NBC doesin fact offer small spheres of public space and political discourseand thereby fulfills a public service mandate, providingbalanced and unbiased news: “If you listen to NBCAfrikaans radio, they are actually quite critical and they alsoallow critical voices to speak, maybe the politicians feel it’snot relevant. The NBC Herero radio station is also where lotsof debates take place.” 62Much has been invested in recent years at NBC in improvingthe quality of its programming, not only from an editorialpoint of view, but also in terms of its production and technicalimplementation. In cooperation with the NBC’s trainingdepartment, media trainers from SR as well as DW Akademiehave conducted workshops aiming for high-quality output –and also introducing debate on editorial guidelines. Neverthe-82