Namibian TV pulls foreign shows

President Nujoma is forthright and outspoken

Namibian state television station, NBC, has replaced imported programmes with local wildlife documentaries, after a presidential directive.

On Monday. President Sam Nujoma told NBC to stop broadcasting foreign soaps, films and series that "have a bad influence on the Namibian youth", according to The Namibian newspaper.

Instead, the president, who is also the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, asked staff members at the state broadcaster to show films that portray Namibia in a positive light.

Immediately after the order local productions made several years ago began being aired.

A staff member told The Namibian that they were confused about how to carry out the order and "began pulling old tapes off the shelves almost at random".

Implications

NBC were then reportedly bombarded with telephone calls from angry viewers complaining about the non-showing of regular programmes like the US-made soap Bold and the Beautiful and the sci-fi series Dune.

Viewers in Windhoek besieged the TV station with complaints

Insiders say that NBC will struggle to find enough local programmes to show, as few home-grown films have been made in recent years. Staff are also saying that the pulling of certain programmes will have legal implications as contracts will be broken.

The Namibian constitution was changed three years ago to allow Mr Nujoma - who is the country's founding president since 1990 - to stand for president for a third term.

Mr Nujoma is well known for speaking his mind. He has repeatedly criticised gay people, describing them as 'unnatural' .

He has also staunchly defended Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reform policy and criticised his country's own white farmers.