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For Malawian journalists and the media, 2005 was a year of mixed fortunes. President Binguwa Mutharika and his successive ministers of Information and Tourism kept telling thenation that the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Malawi Television (TVM) wouldopen up and accommodate dissenting views. The President even offered to help in the trainingof journalists. Neither the training nor the opening up of the public broadcasting sector tookplace.Further, recommendations made by the review workshop of Malawi’s 2004 elections for thegovernment to loosen its grip on public broadcasters went unheeded. As expected, like itspredecessors, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), theDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) monopolised public media during the campaign for byelectionsin six constituencies. It won all the seats. Ironically, the UDF cried foul and describedthe by-elections as neither free nor fair, accusing the DPP of abusing public resources, the verytactics international observers and political critics condemned during the controversial 2004elections which the UDF (alone) considered free and fair.Media-government relationshipA downward turn was apparent during 2005 in the relationship between the private media andthe government. A few events illustrate these deteriorating relations. Daily Times journalistCollins Mtika was beaten by Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) supporters while covering apress conference by AFORD’s president, Chakufwa Chihana. At the time, AFORD was in aruling coalition with the UDF.The same month, President Mutharika rejected reporters from TVM and MBC, choosing hisown journalists to accompany him to China. Later, two journalists and the Vice President’spress officer were arrested over a story that alleged that the President had left state housebecause he was being haunted by ghosts.Zodiak radio was denied permission by parliament to broadcast parliamentary proceedingslive. Capital Radio was sued using a 1967 insult law that is inconsistent with the currentconstitution. Thereafter the government accused three newspapers – the Chronicle, the Nationand the Daily Times – of harbouring mercenary journalists in the employ of former governmentminister and ex-MP Philip Bwanali.The First Lady sued the Nation despite having refuted the story that said she and her entouragewent shopping in expensive shops in Scotland while her husband was pleading for aid. Thestory was based on the Daily Record website (www.dailyrecord.co.uk/tm_objectid). VeteranMBC journalist Moffat Kondowe complained late in the year that he was sent back fromreporting parliamentary proceedings on the orders of the Minister of Information who accusedhim of being a UDF spy. MISA condemned the government action. Deputy Minister of Informationand Tourism John Bande went as far as accusing TVM journalists of engaging in sexualacts in the studios instead of concentrating on their work.There were, of course times, like May 3 World Press Freedom Day, when government praisedthe media for contributing significantly to the consolidation of democracy in Malawi. But thiscould be seen as a politically correct statement befitting the occasion. In brief, mistrustcharacterised the relationship between the private media and the Malawian government, whilethe opposition continued to doubt the integrity of public media.Legislative environmentChapter 4 of the constitution guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of the press/media,So This Is Democracy? 2005-62-Media Institute of Southern Africa