33. What criteria determine allocation for free or subsidized access to media for political parties?

EISA Pre-Election Assessment Mission Report, 2014, https://www.eisa.org/pdf/nam2014eisa1.pdf, p.12. 

Report of the Commonwealth Expert Team: Namibia Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 2014, https://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/inline/Namibia%2BReport%2Bof%2Bthe%2BCommonwealth%2BExpert%2BTeam%2B2014.pdf, p. 6-8. 

"In regards to equality in party airtime provision, there is a policy on equal time allocation by the national public broadcaster, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for all political parties. The number of broadcasts received by each party depends on the number of parties registered for the elections combined with the number of broadcasting slots the NBC makes available. In this regard, each party has been allocated five (5) minutes per week whereby they record their information for five minutes which is aired two days later for five minutes. In addition to this free airtime, parties are free to purchase additional airtime from the NBC for further broadcasts. The PAM team noted that the equal time allocation by the NBC had been adhered to. Appreciating the new policy on equal airtime on television and radio, the EISA PAM would also like to note that the airtime allocated to the political parties is not adequate" (EISA 2014: 12).

The Commonwealth Report states, however, that some kind of unequality has been present in the media coverage during the last presidential and general election in 2014.