Government events or Swapo rallies?

TV broadcasting coverage of the 2009 elections: Week 3
 
AS part of its election watch project, the Institute for Public Policy Research is monitoring the coverage of the impending election on NBC television news and One Africa television news from October to 26 November 2009, the day before polling takes place on 27 and 28 November.

Highlights
 
Highlights from the results for the week of 13 November to 19 November: Swapo’s dominance of NBC television news decreased to 70 per cent of all coverage devoted to political parties as compared to 83 per cent in the previous week.

The RDP was the second most featured party on the NBC for the second week moving up from 8 per cent to 12 per cent of party coverage.

One Africa only featured items on Swapo and the CoD, although it did briefly interview several party representatives at a panel debate on poverty. Some items on the NBC were classified as both government and Swapo events, as speakers launching government projects wore Swapo colours.

Overall the NBC increased its election coverage from 94 minutes in the previous week to 123 minutes in the week under scrutiny. One Africa’s coverage went down from 30 minutes to 21 minutes.

Commentary
 
For the first time in the three weeks of monitoring the NBC news, there was equality of coverage between Swapo and the opposition on a news bulletin (Wednesday, 18 November) with Swapo rallies featuring for four minutes, followed by two minutes each on RDP and Swanu events.

It has been argued that the NBC’s heavy concentration on Swapo events is largely a result of the opposition’s non-activity. Whilst it is clear that Swapo is the most active party in the country, there were several oppositionrelated stories featured in other media that did not get on to the NBC news.

Among these were a panel debate on inequality involving most registered parties, a CoD press conference on the rigging of elections, a Republican Party rally at Katima Mulilo, a Nudo rally at Opuwo, an RDP press statement on comments made by Swapo vice-president Hage Geingob, a CoD rally in Katima Mulilo, an RDP rally at Ondangwa, and an RDP press release on repeat voting.

It has become harder to distinguish between some government events and Swapo rallies. There were two events covered on television news in the week under review which appeared to concern the launch of government projects, but speakers wore Swapo colours and in one instance urged the public attending the event to vote for Swapo.

The two events were the launch of a new road in the Omusati region and the launch of the Omuthiya hospital project.

The newsmakers
 
The main newsmakers in news reports for the period 30 October to 19 November:

1. Hifikepunye Pohamba (Swapo): 33 minutes
2. Penukeni Iivula-Ithana (Swapo): 20 minutes
3. Elijah Ngurare (Swapo): 15 minutes
4. Hage Geingob (Swapo): 9 minutes
5. Joel Kaapanda (Swapo): 6 minutes
6. Nangolo Mbumba (Swapo): 6 minutes
7. Theo Mujoro ECN official: 6 minutes
8. Herbert Shixwameni (APP): 5 minutes
9. Katuutire Kaura (DTA): 5 minutes
10. Ngarikutuke Tjiriange (Swapo): 4 minutes
11. Jesaya Nyamu (RDP): 4 minutes
12. Piet van der Walt (Swapo): 4 minutes
13. Usutuaije Maamberua (Swanu): 4 minutes

Out of 46 newsmakers featured there were 27 Swapo politicians, 16 opposition politicians (representing APP, DTA, Nudo, RDP, RP, Swanu, and UDF), two electoral officials and one political commentator.

No one features from six of the registered parties. Of these it would seem the CP, DPN, NDP, NDMC, and MAG have organised little in the way of media-oriented events. However, the CoD has organised a number of rallies and press conferences.

Of the 12 presidential candidates, seven have featured on the news. Of the five who have not featured Salomon Isaaks (DPN), Frans /Goagoseb (NDMC), and Attie Beukes (CP), have hardly had a media profile at these elections and appear to have organised very few, if any, media-oriented events.

However, Ben Ulenga (CoD) and Henk Mudge (RP) have featured in other media, albeit on a limited scale.

(Full report available online at www.ippr.org.na).