At a time Malawi is still struggling to get some laws enacted or reviewed to improve media freedom in the country, the government is busy coming up with laws and introducing some measures that threaten the media.
Malawi seems to be worsening instead of improving on media freedom, contrary to promises made by President Peter Mutharika and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) during their campaign.
First was the E-Transactions Bill in which the government has put in provisions giving it powers to censor the online media for purposes of “public order and national security” and also to use archaic laws that criminalise the work of the media.
The bill, if passed into law in its present form, is open to abuse for political interests and should not be allowed to pass without review of these ambiguous provisions.
Malawi has maintained dozens of outdated colonial laws which, among other things, criminalise free speech and negate on the constitutional guarantees on media freedom and freedom of expression. The sections in the E-transaction bill cited above give credence and effect to these laws.
These sections are directly inconsistent with Section 36 of the Republican Constitution which states that: “The press shall have the right to report and publish freely within Malawi and abroad and to be accorded the fullest possible facilities for access to public information.”
The provisions as drafted in the E-Transactions Bill are a threat to media freedom and the entire principle of democracy and should be reviewed to avoid retrogressing on media freedom as a country.
Secondly, in the government budget for 2015/2016, Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, withdrew the tax exemption for importation of radio and television broadcasting equipment as provided f or in the Customs Procedure Code 480 which has been removed. This comes at a time the television industry in Malawi is still in its infancy and when the Government as a member to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is in the process of supporting television stations to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting. Among other things, the television industry will be required to import both television cameras, Set Top Boxes, digital aerials including some related television equipment to support the migration process at affordable and minimum cost to local Malawians when accessing television services. It therefore came as a surprise that instead of providing incentives to the TV industry to support the migration, the government withdraws the tax exemptions on television broadcasting equipment imported by television operators. The television broadcasting industry has at present only five major licencees who have rolled out their services based on “Free to Air” broadcasting services. The leading television licences include Times Television, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Luso, Zodiak and Joy Television. The rest are religious channels. Watching these five local television stations, it is clear that most have not yet started attracting much advertising business and this could be attributed to lack of quality broadcasting equipment and inability to generate good local programmes due to lack of financial resources. Unless government continues to support the television industry, it is unlikely that the industry will mature. The country may continue to rely on foreign television channels which do not broadcast local content programmes relevant for Malawians. Malawi as a country has the lowest penetration rate for usage of television broadcasting services . The country has foreign based multinational television stations that offer pay television services. The pricing of these pay television stations are beyond financial means of most Malawians. One of the key ways the government can support local television stations in the short to medium term is through exemption of duty on equipment in the interest of promoting the digital migration process as well as enhancing access to information by the general public. While Malawians are yet to get clarity on the E-Transactions Bill and the TV industry still to come to terms with the taxes and duties in the budget, we now hear of some strange regulations in the draft Communications Act which are clearly aimed at cracking down on the broadcasting industry in the country.
The proposed law, instead of addressing pertinent issues such as the independence of Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and the Malawi Communications Regularly Authority (Macra) as expected by many people, has provisions which will see the government regulating mundane things such as content and adverts on TV and radio stations.
Can somebody tell me that I’m dreaming? A government going to an extent of wanting to control things like sponsorships for news, weather, traffic reports and political advertising?
The direction the government is taking is unconstitutional because the country’s republican constitution does not provide for state regulation of the media.
Malawians have reasons to be worried about the government’s true agenda for the media.
#ThumbsDown to the Minister of Information
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