The right to hear opposition voices

FRITZ H DAUSAB, LPM MEMBER OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS WRITES:

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Opposition parties in Namibia have had no luck in making use of the NBC television and radio broadcasting, after trying for a few months now. This indeed is strange, as the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic Press, which was subsequently adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights was drawn up in Namibia.

There were two parts to the declaration. The first dealt with establishing community radio stations. In this regard Namibia did quite well.

What Namibia and the rest of Africa urgently need to redress is issues regarding the public broadcaster, in this case the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation. The NBC is not a public broadcaster, but more of a state broadcaster (Hendrik Bussiek, DW Akademie, "The failed reform of public broadcasters in Africa", 2016). This means that just as in the rest of Africa, the public broadcaster is paid with the public purse, yet is only accessible to the governing political party and government.

In Namibia the national broadcaster gives 90% of all coverage to the Swapo government and everything about Swapo is broadcast free. All this in an apparent free and fair Namibia.

The nerve of Swapo and the world to admire so-called "freedom" in Namibia is misplaced.

The NBC board is appointed by the government, and as such NBC is owned and supervised by the Swapo government. Due to this deceitful freedom enjoyed by Namibians, the voices of the powerful in government is mostly heard, while the voices of opposition and ordinary citizens are oppressed and largely absent (Bussiek).

The NBC is in the red and needs N$300 million from state funds. This means ordinary citizens' and opposition party's tax money. Where does the hypocrisy end? Our money is ­being used to bankroll the Swapo Party, yet the citizens are not even covered with their own money.



ELECTIONS

The organisation Article 19 prescribes as follows in its "Principles of Freedom of Expression and Broadcast Regulation" (2002):

29.1 States have an obligation to ensure that the public receive adequate information during an election, including through broadcasting, about how to vote, the platforms of political parties and candidates, campaign issues and other ­matters of relevance to the election. Such information should be made available through news and current affairs programmes, special election programmes, direct access political broadcasts and, where allowed, commercial political advertisements.

29.3 Broadcasters should be required to ensure that all election coverage is fair, equitable and non-discriminatory.

According to these guidelines the NBC or newspapers are not supposed to be only partial to the ruling party and should be open to all political parties to inform the public. Opposition parties are officially kept off the airwaves by Swapo, against all prescriptions of fairness and the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) is allowing these misdemeanours to continue at all elections since 1989.

It is the duty of the ECN to ensure that elections are free and fair, yet this not the case. ECN Commissioners are appointed by the Swapo government, the same as NBC and both have their boards answerable to the Swapo Party, through the government.

The body responsible for overseeing election broadcast obligations should ensure that prompt redress is available to parties and candidates for election related violations, including in response to complaints. The oversight body should, in this context, have the power to impose a range of remedies including requiring the offending broadcaster to carry a correction, retraction or reply. The decisions of this body should be subject to judicial review.

In the run-up to 27 November 2019, ECN and the Swapo government together with SADC and the international diplomatic corps present in Namibia should ensure the fairness of national elections and equal opportunities to all participating political parties as well as independent candidates.

The more than 8 000 officers promised by the Chief of Police should be used to ensure the safety and security of all at polling stations.



ELECTRONIC VOTING

In the same breath the international community should assist opposition parties in Namibia against the use of Electrical Voting Machines in the elections. These EVM machines can be manipulated, and the way dr. Hage Geingob was daring Namibians that he does not care for competition is too ominous not to suspect the worse from the ECN, Swapo, NDF, Police and the government.

If Swapo and ECN insist on using the EVMs, there should be a paper trail used with machines. Why is Swapo scared of a start-up such as the Landless People's Movement (LPM)? The answer could simply be that the old fossils of Swapo is scared of young leaders who can pinpoint the inadequacies of current government.