Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
The National Media Institute of Southern Africa (NAMISA) is dismayed by
the demonstration and invasion, on Monday, May 20, 2002, of the “Daily
Times” premises by traditional leaders and ruling United Democratic Front
(UDF) loyalists purportedly drawn from Chiradzulu East Constituency. We
believe the action by UDF was a deliberate move to silence the newspaper
against writing articles critical of the ruling party and especially on the third
term issue.
According to media reports the crowd was demonstrating against articles the
“Daily Times” and its sister weekly, “The Malawi News”, recently published
quoting some chiefs who allegedly denied having mandated their Member of
Parliament, Henry Mussa, to support a UDF bid to change the Constitution in
order to allow President Bakili Muluzi to run for a third term in office in 2004.
Much as we appreciate that the political activists had the right to assemble
and demonstrate peacefully, NAMISA finds the demand by the activists to
see journalists Mabvuto Banda and Akimu Kaingana and the invasion of the
newspaper premises by overzealous and excited young democrats as sheer
acts of intimidation which violate press freedom as enshrined in section 36
of the Republican Constitution.
We fail to understand why the honourable MP and the chiefs could not just
discuss their concerns with Blantyre Newspapers management and resolve
the issue amicably, as opposed to ferrying truckloads of party zealots to instill
fear in media workers. One would have expected the Hon. MP and the chiefs
to have demanded an apology from the paper if they, indeed, were misquoted
as they have claimed. This is normal in the media world and we are sure the
Hon. MP knows this. That the demonstration was calculated at intimidating
Blantyre Newspapers workers and, indeed, send a message to other media
houses, is vindicated by the news blackout on the incident in the “Daily Times”
of May 21. Yet this event happened in Blantyre Print’s own backyard.
We further condemn earlier attempts by other UDF cadres to scare media
workers from writing news stories and analytical articles that do not favour
the ruling party’s designs to change the Constitution. A few days ago UDF
deputy Regional Governor Samson Msosa warned the media to stop writing
on the third term debate. The party also issued a statement accusing “The
Nation” newspaper of having sinister motives. In their view, the crime that
“The Nation” committed was to run interviews which dismissed threats by
Regional Governor Davis Kapito who warned UDF MPs not to vote against
change of the Constitution.
NAMISA wishes to remind the UDF and all other political parties that the
media has the noble duty of covering issues in a balanced and objective
manner and it should be left to do just this in the interest of nurturing an
So This Is Democracy? 311