By Wadza Botomani
As the world commemorates World Press Day, Leader of Opposition in Parliament and DPP Vice President for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa has urged the Tonse government to stop muzzling Press Freedom in the country
Nankhumwa’s full statement is as follows
“Today, 3rd May, is World Press Freedom Day. I wish to congratulate all journalists in Malawi as they join their friends across the globe in commemorating this very important day.”
This year’s theme, according to the United Nations, is “Journalism Under Digital Siege”. The theme is intended to highlight the multiple ways in which surveillance and digitally mediated attacks endanger journalists and journalism.
In 1994, Malawi embraced democracy. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Republican Constitution under section 36. The access to information law also took effect in September 2020, which we all celebrated as a big step forward towards fully consolidating our democracy.
So far, the media has played a crucial role in strengthening democracy in the country by providing the necessary information for citizens to make informed decisions. As the ‘fourth estate’, the media has performed exceptionally well in holding the executive arm of government accountable for its actions.
However, according to the 2022 Freedom of the Press Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Malawi has slipped in ranking from 62 in 2021 to 80 in 2022 in terms of promoting freedom of the press and access to public information by journalists.
I am not surprised by this huge fall in ranking because it appears that the Tonse Alliance government, under President Lazarus Chakwera, has brazenly gone full throttle in muzzling press freedom, including harassing and arresting journalists for merely doing their job.
A case in point is the recent arrest of social media commentators, including a nurse, Chidawawa Maine, and Mr. Joshua Chisa Mbele, as well as that of Director of Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) Gregory Gondwe, on 5th April, 2022.
As journalists commemorate this very important day, I would like to call upon President Chakwera and his government to resist the temptation of taking Malawi back to the one-party totalitarian practices where journalists were arbitrarily arrested and detained for many years for reporting the truth. Under that one-party oppressive regime of the late Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, journalists were forced to toe the party line and to always glorify the ‘Ngwazi’ as a demi-god.
As Leader of Opposition in Parliament, I will not fold my hands and watch the Tonse Alliance government snuff away various freedoms that Malawians gallantly fought for in 1993 and 1994, including the freedom of expression. We shall, therefore, continue to push for the removal from our statutes archaic laws that impede media independence, and the safety of journalists in Malawi in conformity with our democratic dispensation.
On Tuesday morning President Chakwera engaged journalists in what was described as Breakfast with Journalist at the state house in Lilongwe
