NBC decision hurts smaller parties

THE Namibian Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa has called on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation to speed up the process of revising and implementing an alternative and equitable airtime allocation for political parties participating in this month’s elections.

The NBC suspended all free airtime slots for the campaigning of political parties this week after the Congress of Democrats and the Rally for Democracy and Progress threatened with court action over unequal allocation.Misa Namibia’s spokesperson Ngamane Karuaihe-Upi said the NBC, as a public broadcaster, has a responsibility to serve the public by giving citizens access to all political parties and information to voters so that they would need to exercise their democratic right to vote.’By removing the free airtime allocation, NBC is not only compromising its mandate, but denying citizens their right to receive critical information that would enable them to meaningfully participate in the democratic process. The biggest losers in this scenario is not the political parties, but the citizens whose right to make informed decisions has been needlessly curtailed,’ Karuaihe-Upi said.He said NBC must come up with a fair and equitable quota system for allocating political parties airtime ‘now and without further delay’.He said all political parties should be treated as equal before elections leaving the final decision to voters.The NBC withdrawal of free airtime left Joseph Kauandenge of the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change fuming.’Half a loaf of bread is better than no loaf at all,’ he said.He said the CoD and RDP’s decision to challenge the NBC’s airtime allocation for political parties was ‘ill-thought, premature and at best suicidal’.’The current airtime allocation clearly is not the best. However, it has provided some sort of visibility to smaller parties that cannot afford to buy airtime on the national broadcaster,’ he said.He said the cancellation was to the advantage of Swapo, as they were able to afford airtime and would be the only visible party when others disappear from television screens.’At times as political parties we should really distinguish between pity and irrelevant issues and principle issues,’ he said.He said the rest of the opposition parties paid the price for a ‘deep-rooted hatred’ that was ‘tribal and personal in nature’.’It is just regrettable that the NBC decided to cancel the airtime allocation without giving the other parties who happen to be in the majority a chance to indicate whether they will continue to make use of the airtime given,’ he said.Swapo secretary general Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana said the CoD and RDP must bear full responsibility for the loss of free airtime.’It is high time that political players demonstrate … maturity and stop behaving like people in need of self-direction,’ she said at a media briefing on Wednesday.