NTV under fire for hosting impostor on talk show

NTV on September 20 invited the wrath of the Council of Governors (COG) after hosting an imposter who claimed to be “lead advisor” to the council in its morning talk show, AM Live.

In a statement posted on its social media platforms, the council expressly denied any affiliations to Eng. Charles Kalomba who appeared in the show to contribute to a discussion on the proposed 8% tax on petroleum products in the show hosted by Debarl Inea.

“The attention of the council of governors has been drawn to NTV’s AM Live show where one Eng. Charles Kalomba posing as lead as advisor to the COG and Secretary General Jua Kali Sector was hosted among other guests,” read the statement.

COG said that the position that Eng. Kalomba purported to hold within the council does not exist within its ranks and has not hired anyone in that capacity.

The discussion has since been pulled down from the television station’s streaming sites and social media handles.

This raises a number of questions. One on why Nation Media Group’s Guest Relations Department researchers did not contact COG before inviting Kalomba to the show.

Two on whether the show’s producer(s) and director(s) liased with the editors before allowing Kalomba on set.

Three, whether Mr. Inea did his homework on the guests he was hosting.

Guests are important to media houses because if they are popular with viewers they have the ability to drive show ratings up and as such media houses are at times under pressure to have relevant guests on their shows which could explain such a mistake.

The council advised NTV to contact them whenever they wish to have any of their employees to contribute to any of their discussions.