There’s an air of expectation in Malawi’s media industry. The country’s new president, Bingu wa Mutharika, stirred things up when he chucked out of office board members of the Malawi Regulatory Authority (Macra) alongside those of the state-controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and TV Malawi (TVM).
Mutharika has not spelled out the reasons for this, but it is widely interpreted as a continuation of his moves against the corruption and inefficiencies that he says mark the rule of his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi. Mutharika told a press conference recently that the three boards were, as he put it, ”stinking”. The latest move has raised the hopes of stakeholders that reforms are imminent in the country’s government-controlled media sector.
Amongst these stakeholders is the Malawi chapter of the National Media Institute of Southern Africa, Namisa. This body has spearheaded a drawn-out campaign on behalf of independent media houses, civic rights organisations and opposition political groupings for parliament to amend or repeal the Communications Act that established Macra when Malawi changed from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy in elections held in 1994. Macra is responsible for the licensing of MBC and TVM, as well as a host of religious, community and private commercial radio stations (and telephone and internet service providers) in the country.
Namisa and the opposition groupings want the Communications Act to allow for the directors of Macra, MBC and TVM (as well as the boards of these organisations) to be appointed through a parliamentary committee, in a process that involves media stakeholders and is open to public scrutiny. At the moment, these appointments are made through a cabinet minister and approved by the president. Since their establishment, MBC and TVM have come under widespread public criticism for failing to live up to their mandate as public service broadcasters.
Besides the above, Namisa is also pushing for the amendment or repeal of a host of laws that threaten media freedom. Press freedom is guaranteed by the constitution of Malawi, but it is given with one hand and taken away with the other. For example, sections 60 and 61 of the penal code, as well as sections under the Preservation of Public Security Act, including the Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act, allow the authorities to arrest and detain journalists. If found guilty under these laws, journalists can be sent to prison for publishing or broadcasting information, or importing and distributing publications, that are deemed prejudicial to the state or public security. Recent victims of these draconian laws are three journalists: Mabvuto Banda, who works for a local daily, The Nation; Raphael Tenthani, a BBC correspondent; and Horace Nyaka, a civil servant who was held and later released on police bail in connection with a story that Mutharika was being haunted by ghosts in his eerily palatial 300-room state house.
On the political front, Malawi’s opposition recently threatened to block a vote in parliament for the funding of MBC and TVM unless the organisations demonstrated a new commitment to their mandate. At the same time, managers of the country’s independent radio stations complained of Macra’s threat to revoke their licences – the regulator accused some of them of working to promote the interests of the opposition. The station managers now want to see, as one of them put it, ”a new Macra that plays the role of a protector of licences and formats, and plays less the role of an enforcer of the…threats of the state.”
But commentators have warned stakeholders to tread carefully in the media sector. Grey Mang’anda, dean of media studies at the University of Malawi, points out that Mutharika’s moves may well be designed to promote his own agenda. Mang’anda reminded The Media that Mutharika recently announced the formation of his own political organisation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), after he ditched Muluzi and the United Democratic Front (UDF), the party that brought him to office in Malawi’s disputed general elections in May last year.
”Mutharika needs state media machinery that he can [place] firmly under his control; that will promote him and his DPP as he prepares to run for office [in 2009], this time as his own man under his own political party.”
In Malawi, radio remains the most powerful medium of communication. Up to four million people – almost half of the population – still do not know how to read and write and live in grinding poverty. Manga’nda observes that these masses represent potentially malleable voters that cannot be ignored by any politician. ”We should therefore take what Mutharika says with a pinch of salt.”
Namisa’s publicity secretary, Innocent Chitosi, concurs with this analysis. ”We can’t take things for granted. And this is more reason why we need to intensify our lobbying with parliament.”
So until parliament actually comes up with the long overdue amendments, or repeals the current laws, the whiff in the air offers no more than a hint of change in Malawi’s media industry.
Al Osman is station manager and editor-in-chief of Capital fm in Malawi.