National Overview Malawi 2011 - Media Institute of Southern Africa

MalawiIntroductionIn the year 2011 the media in Malawihave, against the backdrop of a hostilepolitical environment and dire economicconditions, played significant roles towardsentrenching political democracyand stimulating social-economic developmentin the country. Overall, the mediahave provided participatory forumsfor citizens to freely voice out policypreferences and debate a diversity of issues.In addition, the media have endeavouredto inform the citizenry throughanalytical reporting on national and internationalcurrent affairs, agro-basedentrepreneurship and how the exerciseof power affects their livelihoods. Themedia have also exposed social injusticesand abuse of power and public resources.They have defended media freedom bystrategic networking with domestic andinternational advocates.However, the operating environmentin 2011 was, for the media, dangerous,oppressive and retrogressive. Members ofthe media have been physically assaultedwhen covering public functions such asmass demonstrations and sports. Theyhave received anonymous death threatsfor carrying stories critical to the government.Media workers have been fired andretrenched on political grounds underthe guise of organisational restructuring.Media houses have been banned fromcarrying live coverage of mass protests.All these events have occurred while theConstitution of the Republic of Malawiguarantees media freedom, freedom ofexpression and right to individual security.Media and PoliticsAll major political parties had internaltensions and conflicts that led toexpulsion of executive members, oftenfollowed by court cases. Civil societyorganisations staged, amid resistancefrom government, mass demonstrationsto draw government attention to poorperformance of the ruling DemocraticProgressive Party (DPP) in delivering onits promises to develop Malawi. Whilepolitical conflicts and tensions were fertileground for political news coverage,the media were inadvertently affected bythe nature of politics.The media in Malawi operate in apolitical environment in which poweris structured around political factions,where political competition is not basedon ideological differences among politicalparties, but rather perceived membershipentitlements in belonging to aparticular political faction. State-ownedand funded media, namely the MalawiBroadcasting Corporation (MBC) andMalawi News Agency (MANA), are controlledby political factions under thecentral command of the DPP, while commercialor community media are proneto align or, from time to time, shift editorialpolicies to any political faction, especiallythose from the opposition pool.Thus, private commercial and communitymedia are either included or excludedfrom entitlements accruing frommembership of the dominant DPP factions,leading to a structural dichotomybetween pro- and anti-establishmentmedia, which in turn results in editorialpolicy shifts in support of or in opposi-66So This is Democracy • 2011