Press Release Made by the Media Council of Malawi (MISA) against the gagging orders to private radio stations.<\/p>\n
For Immediate Release<\/strong><\/p>\n 20th July, 2011<\/p>\n The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has We also express our dismay over the cavalier and brutal manner the police Reports indicate that MACRA has written all private radio stations We, however, believe that the ban on coverage of the demonstrations is Sections 36 and 37 of the Republican Constitution are clear. Section 36 \u02dcThe press shall have the right to report and publish freely, within \u02dc…every person shall have the right of access to all information held by These two sections recognize the relevance of access to information for We, therefore, call upon MACRA to advise broadcasters to exercise We also call upon the Communications Regulatory body to respect the public’s In the same vein, we would like to appeal to Malawi Police Service to We have gathered that the police have brutally beaten one Journalist, Apart from Chimjeka, several other journalists were among the people who MISA Malawi condemns this action and appeals to the police to protect both Journalists are citizens with full rights and they are free to cover the We extend our support to journalists and fellow Malawians that have been We would like to assure the media fraternity that MISA Malawi is taking up Signed<\/p>\n ANTHONY KASUNDA<\/p>\n MISA MALAWI ACTING CHAIRPERSON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Press Release Made by the Media Council of Malawi (MISA) against the gagging orders to private radio stations. For Immediate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005],"tags":[1004,258],"class_list":["post-3994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-demonstrations-2","tag-20july","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nlearnt with shock that the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority
\n(MACRA) has issued a ban stopping all private radio stations from
\nbroadcasting live the demonstrations taking place in the country.<\/p>\n
\nhas handled the demonstrations and journalists covering these
\ndemonstrations.<\/p>\n
\nstopping them from airing the proceedings of the demonstrations in the
\ninterest of national security.<\/p>\n
\nsuperfluous, unconstitutional and retrogressive as it takes away the right
\nof people to access information.<\/p>\n
\nstates:<\/p>\n
\nMalawi and abroad, and to be accorded the fullest possible facilities for
\naccess to public information\u02dcand Section 37 says:<\/p>\n
\nthe state or any of its organs at any level of government in so far as
\nsuch
\ninformation is required for the exercise of his rights.”<\/p>\n
\npeople to make informed decisions. The ban on coverage of the
\ndemonstrations clearly violates these provisions and is unwarranted and
\nimperious.<\/p>\n
\nprofessionalism and sensitivity in broadcasting the demonstrations as
\nprovided under the Communications Act, and not issue a ban.<\/p>\n
\nright to know and the media\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s duty to provide the public with relevant,
\naccurate and important information to make informed decisions by
\nimmediately lifting the ban.<\/p>\n
\nrespect journalists in their line of duty. Journalists have a key
\nresponsibility to objectively report on proceedings of the demonstrations
\nwithout fear or intimidation from any quarter.<\/p>\n
\nRebecca Chimjeka of Joy Radio, who had to receive treatment at the
\nhospital.<\/p>\n
\nwere detained and whipped by Police in Lilongwe. Among the journalists is
\nNation Publications Limited News Analyst Kondwani Munthali. The other
\njournalists are Leonard Sharra and Jacob Nankhonya of Blantyre Newspapers
\nLimited; and Yvonne Sundu, Isaac Kambwiri and Nathan Majawa.<\/p>\n
\ncivilians and journalists who are exercising their constitutional right to
\nexpress themselves through peaceful demonstrations.<\/p>\n
\ndemonstrations as well as participate as the media is also aggrieved with
\nthe amendment of Section 46 of the Penal Code and the enactment of the
\ninfamous Injunctions Act.<\/p>\n
\nvictimized by the authorities, and further appeal to them to exercise
\ncaution and responsibility during these difficult times.<\/p>\n
\nthe issues with authorities at MACRA and the Malawi Police Service as we
\ncannot condone what has happened today.<\/p>\n