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Media in the Political Process

(Chapter in Patel, N & Svsand, L (Forthcoming) Government and Politics in Malawi,
Zomba: Kachere Series, University of Malawi Centre for Social Research, & Chr. Michelsens
institutt)

Levi Zeleza Manda

INTRODUCTION
The ancient Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, aptly described human beings as political animals
because their lives are to a large extent determined by power relations wherever they live.
Except in totalitarian societies, citizens are involved in freely choosing their leaders. Citizens
are also free to hold their leaders accountable for their acts. They also expect their leaders to
be responsive to peoples needs. Leaders expect their people to fulfil their duties, such as
paying taxes and respecting the laws of the land. As such, leaders need to and do regularly
communicate with their constituents. They do this through personal-cum-private
communication that includes face-to-face talks, telephone conversations and letters.
However, the mass media (radio, television, books, magazines and social media) are the
fastest and the cheapest means per capita of communicating with large numbers of people
(often but erroneously called masses) scattered over a large area, such as a country, a
continent and indeed the entire world. Mass media, notably newspapers, radio, television,
and social media, play an important role in the political process. They facilitate public
participation in politics and in the formulation of public opinion. In the early 1990s, Malawi
adopted a relatively democratic political system, which included constitutional guarantees of
human rights and freedoms, such as the right to freedom of expression and the right to
freedom of the press. Since then, there has been a significant increase in the number of
newspapers, radio stations, social media and internet providers in the country. These mass
media have played a role in Malawis political processes mainly by providing an open space
for public debate and contributing to civic and political education. This has allowed for a
great variety of voices to be heard and a better informed populace. As is the case elsewhere,
the nature and extent of the role of the mass media in the political process are influenced by
the economic, social and legal frameworks in which the mass media operate.

This chapter discusses and attempts to answer the following questions:
What are mass media?
How have the mass media evolved in Malawi?
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What role do the media play in society and politics?
Do the mass media influence voters?
What are the challenges facing mass media in Malawi?
How are the media regulated in Malawi?

WHAT ARE THE MASS MEDIA?
Mass media are often referred to as the fourth estate because, after the three branches of
government the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary they have the next most
influential role in politics and society.

Key concept: mass media
Mass media are the channels of human communication which include newspapers, books,
magazines, radio, television, and the internet.

The term mass media is closely associated with mass society theory which dates back to the
industrial revolution in Europe when large numbers of people from rural areas migrated to
industrialising places for employment. The result was that people were packed together
into urban areas where lack of community left many alienated, atomised and lonely. It was
at this time that people began to be referred to as the masses. Newspapers, pamphlets, and
eventually films and television became major sources of information and entertainment to
those masses, becoming what is now known as mass media. Although the concept of mass
society is contested today, the term mass media still refers to those communication media
catering to a wide audience whom the communicators never meet individually.

Thus, mass media have become more and more powerful since the 20
th
century as
technology improves and owners design sophisticated programmes to appeal to a variety of
consumers. The media are associated with facilitating or, indeed, thwarting public
participation in politics and are partly responsible for the formulation of public opinion or
political socialisation.

Some consider mass media to be an irresistible vehicle for spreading ideas, culture, and
political and economic hegemony, particularly from the USA. This is so because traditional
mass media such as television, radio, and newspapers did not have much space for
audience viewer resistance, rejoinder or interaction. New media, such as the internet, and
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traditional media, such as drumming, dance, and song in some African societies, have
provided more opportunities for social exchange. Indeed, some critics have argued that the
internet is the only hope for sustaining democracy in the 21
st
century because it enables
people of all races, classes, and genders to participate and collectively demand what they
consider to be good for their society (Thornton, 1996).

Mass media can be broadly categorised into print and electronic media. Print media are in a
form that consists of paper and ink and reproduced in a printing process that is traditionally
mechanical and photochemical. This form of media mainly includes newspapers, magazines,
books and other periodicals. Electronic media require electricity to operate, function or
communicate messages and mainly include radio, television, the internet and the mobile
phone. The internet has of late become a crucial medium of communication as it hosts and
facilitates social interactive media such as facebook, youtube, google chat, yahoo groups,
twitter, messenger, blogger, and many other chat networks. In 21
st
century social media
have demystified journalism. From being a reserve for trained professionals, journalism has
expanded to allow every citizen (whence citizen journalist) able to read and write to cover
an event, create a message and send to all members of a network. Politicians have taken
advantage of the presence of such media to campaign and communicate political messages.
During the soc-called Arab Spring, facebook, twitter, and youtube complemented live
television broadcasts of popular protests that led to the toppling of long-serving leaders in
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen. Even though regime change did not occur in Iran and
Bahrain, the protests there were made known to the worldwide public via these social media,
blogs, and other internet based news-outlets.

In Malawi, the July 20, 2011 protests and resultant police killings of marchers in Lilongwe
and Mzuzu were transmitted to international audiences through youtube, twitter, facebook
and standalone online news media such nyasatimes.com, malawidemocrat.com, and
Maravipost.com even though MBCTV did not broadcast the events.

In America, Asia, Australia, Europe and parts of Africa, political and religious leaders posted
their addresses and campaign messages on youtube among other social media. To reach out
to the youth and worldwide audiences, Queen of Elisabeth of England posts her message on
Youtube and other internet based media. In Singapore, a youthful political candidate, Nciole
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Seah, used Facebook in 2011 to campaign for a parliamentary seat in that countrys
parliament.


Social media in political elections (Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/)

Contrary to fears that social media are elitist, a literate administrative chief in the rural
Kenyan region of Lanet Umoja, located 160 kilometres West of Nairobi, created a twitter
network which he used not only to invite his semiliterate, illiterate and literate people to his
village courtyard or baraza for regular community meetings but also to communicate with
his people on issues of development, village politics and culture without necessarily meeting
them in person. He also used his twitter account as a two-way hotline to constantly
communicate with the police and his people about incidences of crime. Some of the people
in the region reported that the crime rate, particularly theft of crops and livestock, had
subsided ever since the chief connected his village to relevant authorities, including the
police through his twitter account. In an interview with the media in 2011, the chief was
quoted as saying that he would use his twitter account for civic education in future electoral
campaigns to prevent politically related violence.
(http://www.africanoutlookonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38
79:twitter-alarm-in-kenya-village-help-sheep-missing&catid=31:general&Itemid=46).

HISTORY OF MASS MEDIA IN MALAWI
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Mass media in Malawi consist of both print and electronic media (including online or web-
based news media). The history of the countrys print media can be traced back to the
colonial period. Among the countrys first publications after the imposition of colonialism in
the early 1890s were the Life and Work in British Central Africa and the Central African
Planter. The former was a missionary magazine politically supportive of African peoples
rights and freedoms, while the latter circulated mainly among the countrys white settler
farming community. The Central African Planter also disseminated research findings on the
protectorates main crops, especially coffee and cotton, and later on tobacco and tea (Chirwa
and Manda, 2008). However, records show that Kalilole, a Chimanganja journal, targeted
mainly at African converts to Christianity and advocated a certain measure of African
freedom (Sembereka, 1980), was published by the Mission as early as 1881 (see Chitsulo
and Manganda, 2011). The Manganja, were then the dominant ethno-linguistic group in
the present day Blantyre and Zomba area. The Livingstonia Mission at Khondowe, Rumphi,
published a Chitumbuka newspaper Vyaro na Vyara (Here and Beyond) and the Livingstonia
News in the early 20
th
century. For its part, the colonial administration published the British
Central Africa Gazette as its official publication. It is exists to date in the form of the Malawi
Government Gazette. Coinciding with the agitation for the end of colonialism was the
establishment by the nationalist Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of the Malawi News as one of
the countrys major newspapers which advocated for nationalist independence.

When Malawi became a one-party state after independence, Malawi News was taken over
from the party by the countrys first president, Kamuzu Banda, who also bought a
controlling interest in The Times to become todays Blantyre Newspapers. Both papers
defended the one-party political system and, from that period until the early 1990s, the
publication or circulation of any newspaper or magazine critical of the political system was
made illegal by numerous laws (Kondowe 1998). Among the laws were the Penal Code and
Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act which empowered the government to ban
publications that were considered undesirable usually because they contained sexually
explicit material, were critical of the ruling party and its leadership, or promoted
communism. Publications that were banned included periodicals such as the World Marxist
Review, Drum, New African and Focus on Africa and books including John Needhams Iron
Age to Independence A History of Central Africa, Robert Rotbergs The Rise of Nationalism:
The Making of Malawi and Zambia, Carolyn MacMasters Malawi Foreign Policy and
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Development, George Orwells Animal Farm, and Leon Trotskys History of the Russian
Revolution.

In Malawi during the one-party era most mass circulation media - the Malawi Broadcasting
Corporation (MBC), Malawi News Agency, The Daily Times and the Malawi News - were
used as propaganda tools for the Malawi Congress Party and its life president, Dr Hastings
Kamuzu Banda. Like Mobutu Seseko of Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Kamuzu
was portrayed as a messiah or saviour (mpulumutsi), an invincible warrior (the ngwazi) and
benevolent protector of women (nkhoswe ya amai). Malawi was portrayed as a safe haven
where people were united; where everyone was well dressed, had enough food and shelter,
but where enemies of the system would perish. The Youth League, the Womens League, the
Malawi Young Pioneers and specialised choirs like Kamenya of Dedza composed songs in
praise of Dr Banda and the MCP. The MBC, mostly through its early morning radio
programme, Kwacha Kwayera, was for 30 years the vehicle of propaganda songs. Ironically,
since all subversive books were banned, the praise songs were a constant reminder of
people who lived in exile, notably Attati Mpakati, Kanyama Chiume (who composed some of
the praise songs for Dr Banda) and Orton Chirwa. During those years, it was difficult in
Malawi for anyone to imagine life without Dr Banda as president. Dr Bandas ardent
supporters declared publicly that all those who opposed the president would be meat for
crocodiles.

After Dr Banda was deposed in 1994, ironically the MBC started playing songs in praise of
the new leaders. Dr Bandas name was replaced by the new leaders names. Further,
musicians composed songs that extolled the new leaders. For example, Lucius Banda
composed a song, Yellow, in which he praised the leadership of Bakili Muluzi for
transforming Malawi such that if Dr Banda rose from the dead he would think Blantyre
were Johannesburg. When Bingu wa Mutharika became president, musician Josephy Mkasa
produced a song, Mose Lero, which compared the president to the Biblical Moses who led
the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to Israel. It is worth noting that despite guarantees
of freedom in the Republican constitution, songs against Muluzi (such as Agalatiya by Billy
Kaunda) were not played on the MBC. Neither was Charles Nsakus song, Napolo, which said
the Mutharika, who likened himself to railtrack iron bar) who would be swept away by flush
floods (Napolo). In short, although Englund (2011) has praised MBCs Nkhani zammaboma
(News from the districts) for giving voice to the voiceless to vent their anger and make
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known their economic tribulations and frustrations to their local (especially traditional)
leaders, MBC has remained a politically biased institution and it is likely to remain so unless
laws governing the MBC are changed drastically.

However, the situation was transformed radically from the early 1990s with the
liberalisation of the political system which resulted in a virtual halt to censorship and a
diversification of the print media. In addition to the daily newspapers: The Daily Times, The
Nation and the Monitor, a number of regular weekly newspapers also emerged, which
included the Malawi News, the Inquirer, the UDF News, the Democrat, the Herald, the
Mirror, the Independent, Michiru Sun, the New Express, the New Voice, The Chronicle, the
National Agenda, and the Statesman.

As Table 1 below indicates, newspapers in Malawi are mostly a private family business
virtually monopolised by two families formerly with links to political parties. Dr Kamuzu
Banda and some of his family were linked to the MCP and later the DPP, while Aleke Banda
served as a cabinet minister in both MCP and UDF governments. However, political
affiliation may not be the key to newspaper success because other politicians tried out their
luck in the newspaper business but failed. For instance, Brown Mpinganjira and Clement
Stambuli owned the Mirror and the Monitor respectively. Both served in the Muluzi cabinet
alongside Aleke Banda, who founded the Nation during the same period. Both the Mirror
and the Monitor newspapers collapsed while the Nation developed from a weekly to daily.
President Mutharika, through his daughter, published the Guardian. Despite employing
some of the best editors from Malawi and abroad, it also collapsed. A plausible explanation
for the collapse newspapers in Malawi is the lack of financial and human resource
management skills. The success of government run newspapers has not been established
although Boma Lathu, like the privately owned Fuko, is freely distributed.

Table 1: Newspapers in Malawi as at December 2011
Newspaper Frequency Approximate
circulation
Owner
The Daily
Times
Daily
(Monday-
Friday)
15,000 Blantyre Print and Packaging LTD/Family of
late Kamuzu Banda
The Nation Daily 20,000 Nation Publications LTD/Family of late Aleke
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(Monday-
Friday)
Banda
Boma Lathu Monthly 50,000 Ministry of Information and Civic Education
Fuko Monthly 15,000 Nation Publications LTD/Family of late Aleke
Banda
Malawi
News
Weekly 25,000 Blantyre Print and Packaging LTD/Family of
late Kamuzu Banda
Sunday
Times
Weekly 15,000 Blantyre Print and Packaging LTD/Family of
late Kamuzu Banda
Weekend
Times
Weekly 10,000 Blantyre Print and Packaging LTD/Family of
late Kamuzu Banda
Weekend
Nation
Weekly 45,000 Nation Publications LTD/Family of late Aleke
Banda
Nation on
Sunday
Weekly 20,000 Nation Publications LTD/Family of late Aleke
Banda
Sky News Weekly 15,000 Sky Publications
Malawi Mail Weekly 5,000 Ministry of Information and Civic Education
(Source: Manda, 2012)

A number of magazines existed but Pride was probably the most regular. The magazines,
printed on gloss paper, full of colour advertisements, are considered too expensive for the
average Malawian to buy. Readership and circulation statistics for newspapers and
magazines are not readily available in Malawi because there is no audit bureau of
circulation.

Thus, much as democracy and the value of media in society have matured, the trend is that
the print media arena has been shrinking principally because of lack of expansion of the
advertising base, and spiralling cost of newsprint, lack of foreign exchange and other inputs.

In comparison to the print media, the electronic media has a relatively short history. During
the colonial period, there was no significant radio broadcasting that covered Malawi (then
known as Nyasaland), except for that by the Federal Broadcasting Corporation which
operated from 1958 to 1961, mainly to disseminate propaganda in favour of the colonial
administration. In 1964, the government of the newly-independent Malawi established MBC
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which operated as the countrys only radio station until the liberalisation of politics in the
early 1990s. The country also had no television station until 1999, when Television Malawi
(later MBC TV) came on the scene (see Manjawira and Mitunda, 2011).

As with the print media, the political liberalisation of the early 1990s led to diversification of
the electronic media. By 2011, the country had one licensed national terrestrial television
station, one satellite television relay service, DSTV, owned by Multichoice of South Africa,
two public service radio network, six private commercial radio stations, four private
religious television stations, four community radio stations, and ten private religious radio
stations. Table 2 below provides the names of the electronic media stations and their
coverage.

Table 2 Licensed Electronic Media in Malawi as at February 2012

Radio/Television Station Type Geographic Coverage
MBC Radio 1 FM/AM Public National
MBC Radio 2 FM Public National
MBC TV Public 70% of national territory
AFJ TV Private (religious)
Luntha TV Private (religious) Balaka, Ntcheu, Mangochi
and parts of Zomba
Galaxy TV Private (commercial) Not yet monitored
African Bible College TV Private (religious) Not yet monitored
Channel for All Nations TV Private (religious) Not yet monitored
Gateway TV Private (commercial) Not yet monitored
Galaxy Radio Private (commercial) Not yet monitored
Maziko Radio Private (religious) Not yet monitored
Capital Radio FM Private (commercial) National, mainly urban
areas
Joy FM Private (commercial) Around Blantyre City
Power FM 101 Private(commercial) National, mainly urban
areas
Mulhakho Radio Private (cultural) Not yet monitored
African Bible College Private (religious) Lilongwe and Mzuzu cities
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Radio
Calvary Family Church
Radio
Private (religious) Around Blantyre City
Channel for All Nations
Radio
Private (religious) Around Lilongwe
Seventh Day Adventist
Radio
Private (religious) National
Radio Alinafe Private (religious) Parts of the Central Region
Radio Islam Private (religious) National
Radio Maria Private (religious) National
Radio Tigabane Community (religious) Around Mzuzu City
Trans-World Radio Community (religious) National
Dzimwe Community Radio Community (general) Part of Mangochi District
Malawi Institute of
Journalism (MIJ) FM
Community (general) National, mainly urban
areas
Nkhotakota Community
Radio
Community (general) Around Nkhotakota, Dowa,
Salima, and Nkhata Bay
Mudzi Mwathu
Community Radio
Community (general) Around Mchinji
Mzimba Community Radio Community (general) Around Mzimba and
Kasungu and Nkhata Bay
Usisya Community Radio Community (general) Around northern Nkhata
Bay and Likoma
(Source: MACRA, 2012)

It is important to note that MACRA defines community radio geographically such that only
four qualified to be called so while all religious radio stations were licensed as private
stations.

In recent years electronic media have expanded beyond radio and television and have
included the internet and mobile telephony. These are an important means by which some
Malawians acquire information about the political process. It is worth noting that news on
Malawi can be accessed via the internet, so that a person who has internet access in Chitipa,
for example, can learn about a political event long before he or she can access that
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information from newspapers, the radio or television, which may not only be slow in
reporting but may not reach such remote parts of the country due to reception problems.

The internet also provides various fora, such as Nyasanet and Malawitalk, for political
debates. Some of whose debates are in fact used as tips for indepth news reports by the print
and broadcast media. Additionally, most media in Malawi have internet based version.
Zodiak Broadcasting Station and Capital Radio broadcast live (also known as live streaming)
via the internet. There also exist stand alone internet based newspapers such as Nyasatimes,
Malawi Democract, and Maravi Post. The internet is therefore a source of information that
may help people to make informed political choices. During the 2004 and 2009 elections,
for example, information about the various events in the electoral process was conveyed to
thousands of people via mobile phone text messages, social media such as facebook and
twitter, and online media. As has been pointed out, however, internet and internet-enable
mobile telephones are accessible to a very small number of people and therefore their impact
on politics and the political process is likely to remain minor in comparison to radio, and to a
lesser extent, television (see Chikunkhuzeni, 2011).

Key concept: social media
The term social media describes all media that are not for profit and are controlled, in terms
content generation and time of publishing, by users. The content is free as long as one can
access internet enabled media such as mobile telephones and computers. During the
2010/2011 Arab protests and revolutions that toppled the presidents of Tunisia, Libya and
Egypt, social media played a significant role because they could not be censored. In Morocco,
social media have been termed the fifth estate.

As for media regulation, Malawi qualifies as a liberal country. Newspapers are registered but
their circulation and content are not officially regulated. The Malawi Communication
Regulatory Authority (MACRA), only polices broadcasting, telephony and postal services.

THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Mass media can and do play a very important role in society in general and in the political
process in particular. Here we consider their different roles and how far the media in
Malawi currently perform these roles, with particular emphasis on the political context.

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Providing general information
In society, mass media are the main channels through which people are informed about
news items: these could be social, political or cultural activities. They provide information
about a wide range of situations, events and other phenomena that affect peoples day-to-
day lives. For many people, mass media are also the only means by which they acquire
information about educational and employment opportunities; social events; births,
marriages and deaths; business; weather; agriculture and numerous other occurrences of
social significance.

In Malawi all forms of media provide this role. Events such as births and deaths appear
mainly in newspapers and are broadcast on radio; job advertisements appear mainly in
newspapers; and consumer advertising appears on television, radio and in the print media.
Since the mid 1990s, there have been attempts at MBC Radio to provide content and
linguistic diversity. For instance, there are news bulletins and short programmes in English
(official language), Chichewa (national language) Chitumbuka, Kiyangonde, Chiyao,
Chilomwe, Chisena and Chitonga. Chilomwe, Chitumbuka, Chitonga, Kiyangonde, Chiyao,
and Chisena are Malawis other prominent languages. MBC TV uses only English and
Chichewa while other languages in interviews are voiced over or paraphrased. MBC Radio 1
broadcasts news and short programmes in these other languages. Broadcasting at MBC 1
allocates only 520 (6.4%) minutes per week to programmes in languages other than English
and Chichewa, i.e. Kiyangonde (86 minutes/week), Chiyao (85 minutes/week), Chitumbuka
(100 minutes/week), Chitonga (85 minutes/week), Chilomwe (90 minutes/week) and
Chisena (70 minutes/week). Chisena, which is allotted the smallest quota, gets 0.9% of
broadcast time, while Chitumbuka, the most privileged of the minority languages occupies
1.2%, Chilomwe gets 1.1% and Chitonga, Chiyao, and Kiyangonde get 1.0% each (Manda,
2006).

This programming in local languages other than Chichewa leaves much to be desired,
however, as linguistic diversity is not accompanied by cultural diversity. News items are
constructed in English and translated into Malawian languages. There is virtually no news
about the political and social activities of the Sena, Tonga, Yao, Lomwe, Ngonde and
Tumbuka; the content provided in these languages is simply a translation of the Chichewa
and English programmes which focus on the main ethnic groups. In short, the beneficiary is
the president, the government and the ruling party.
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Providing entertainment
Mass media also serve society by providing entertainment in various forms, including
documentaries, films, plays, music and poetry and national and international sports events.
Sometimes a mixture of entertainment and education (edutainment or infotainment) is
used to get across a particular message, such as AIDS in programmes like Tikuferanji and
Sewero la Sabata Ino on MBC 1.

Providing news about politics
The mass media are the main channels for informing people about the activities of political
events, institutions and processes. It is from radio and television broadcasts, social media,
internet-based newspapers and articles in newspapers, magazines and other print media
that many people in Malawi obtain information about issues being debated in the National
Assembly; activities of the president, ministers, members of parliament (MPs) and
councillors; advocacy by civil society organisations; and international political events. In
addition to providing information on politics and the political process as part of the news, it
is also common for MBC to broadcast live important political activities such as
parliamentary debates and state of the nation addresses by the president. Similarly,
newspapers such as The Nation and The Daily Times also dedicate whole pages exclusively
to the coverage of parliamentary sittings and regularly carry feature articles aimed at
describing the activities of political actors and their significance.

In the same way that media can be used to fully inform the public, they can also be used to
misinform the public by not providing all the facts, distorting the truth, ignoring some
politicians or simply lying about a situation or event. Unfortunately, this happens in Malawi
for a variety of reasons:
Some media are operated as businesses and therefore ethical issues and politically
charged topics are sometimes ignored in pursuit of business and profits.
Some media are politically polarised and therefore often present partisan political
information. Media are mostly owned by politicians and are therefore vehicles of
partisan information instead of providing a public sphere for all and thereby ensuring a
level political playing field.
Some journalists are unethical, corrupt, or easy to bribe and are willing to twist stories or
not cover issues which are in the publics interest if they are given the right inducements.
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Some journalists are ignorant or lack the necessary training to be good journalists. As a
result, their coverage of issues can be shallow and distorted.
Social media users do not have any code of ethics and as such easily send information
that distorts the truth.

Providing a public sphere
Key concept: public sphere
A public sphere is an open space for all citizens to air their opinions and ideas, which is
essential for a free and open society.
In politics the media provide what Habermas (1989) calls the public sphere, an open space
for people to discuss their ideas freely and democratically. Habermas compares this space to
an agora, an open space in the ancient city of Athens, Greece, where people gathered to
debate social and political issues. In elections, the mass media can provide a forum for
political debate among the candidates, parties and the electorate.

This public sphere role of the media is also evident in Malawi. Radio phone-in programmes
are the most obvious example of this. Some of the most popular of such programmes are
broadcast regularly by Capital Radio, FM 101, and other private radio stations which invite
members of the general public to telephone and give their views live on air on subjects of
immediate topical interest selected by the stations. Many radio stations and TVM have
debates by panels of experts or lobbyists covering a wide variety of subjects, including
matters of political significance such as the conduct of politicians, political institutions and
the citizenry. Some print media also publish articles or letters by members of the general
public giving their views on issues of the day. By facilitating public debate and providing
space or airtime for people to express their views, mass media in Malawi make a significant
contribution to the forming, holding and expressing of public opinion; something that is
important in any political process.

The media help set political agendas by proposing what they consider worthwhile and
popular when political parties fail to come up with tangible issues. The Politial Index weekly
supplement in The Nation is a case in point.

Protecting democracy
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The media can promote accountability in the same way as do pillars of integrity such as
anti-corruption bureaux, human rights commissions, ombudsmen and civil society. The
media can help to prevent elected representatives and the executive arm of government
from abusing their power by exposing misuse of office, incompetence and corruption,
among other social ills. The media do so by providing information about government affairs
(including the views of the opposition) to the public and thus linking citizens to their elected
representatives. Because the media frequently expose dubious government actions,
governments are compelled to explain their decisions and actions to the public. The media
can also contribute to the accountability of civil society and the private sector. Civil society
groups such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private sector institutions such
as corporations are inclined to conduct themselves more ethically and efficiently, if they feel
the watchful eye of the media is on them.

In elections, the media can play a vital part in ensuring that the electoral process is
conducted in a free and democratic manner by denouncing electoral irregularities and by
monitoring and reporting results. It is for this reason that freedom of the media and
expression during the electoral process is considered one of the conditions for free and fair
elections.

If mass media are allowed to perform their role effectively, they can contribute to ensuring
accountability and good governance on the part of the government and public sector, and
sound business and economic activities on the part of the private sector, all of which are
prerequisites for development.

In Malawi, the potential is there for the mass media to provide this all-important watchdog
role. However, legally not all mass media have an obligation to play this role. Private and
community radios do not have specific legal obligations to contribute to the political process
in any particular way. In contrast, the MBC, which is supposed to be a public service, has
specific legal obligations that compel it to promote a democratic political culture and
democratic political processes. Section 87(1) of the Communications Act (Act No 41 of
1998) requires MBC to provide public broadcasting services in accordance with a number
of principles, including the encouragement of free and informed opinion on all matters of
public interest [and] respect for human rights, the rule of law and the Constitution of
Malawi. Section 87(2) of the same act expressly requires MBC to function without any
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political bias and independently of any person or body of personssupport the democratic
processprovide balanced coverage of any elections; andhave regard to the public
interest.

The media played a commendable watchdog role in the open/third term issue by keeping the
issue alive by constant coverage. There are many other critical issues, such as corruption,
where media played a useful role leading to the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of
some powerful people although others with close links to those governing the country were
left untouched.

Questioning the state of governance
During the history and evolution of journalism, journalists have criticised, commended and
even endorsed government policies and state of governance through several genres:
Editorial comments, specialist columns, comic strips, and cartoons. Innocent as they appear,
cartoons have been employed in newspaper, on radio and TV, to illustrate stories and
provide humour, diversion and socio-political commentary. Compared to the Malawian
cartoonist of the 1990s (see Chirambo, 1998), the cartoonist of the 2000s is bold, politically
involved and highly sententious. For example, cartoons such as Ayobe and Point of Order
(which replaced Brian Haras politically charged cartoon series, Town and Country Rat),
Puludzu, Zaya Kunkhongo and others have challenged political and helped some of them to
rethink their actions. The cartoons below provide evidence of this role.


Amtchona (Weekend Nation 1415 May 2005)

17
In the above cartoon, a politician who has just returned from a sitting of parliament is asked
whether parliamentarians discussed such important issues as water, schools, famine, and
roads. His answer is that they discussed whether to confirm the appointment of an Inspector
General of Police. He mockingly asks them if they have any more questions since he has to
ride off in his Mercedes Benz as he wishes to go and watch DVDs!

Of late political leaders have been criticised, through different cartoons, for their failure to
handle issues like academic freedom, shortage of foreign exchange and fuel in Malawi. For
example, in the Puludzu cartoon published in the Daily Times of 10 November 2011, a
leaders slogan and campaign are questioned. The cartoonist even evaluated the politicians
and found their performance wanting as the Puludzu cartoon of 3
rd
November 2011 shows.


Puludzu (Daily Times, 10 November 2011)

18

Puludzu (Daily Times, 3 November, 2011)

The police and other civil servants have also been subjected to humorous criticism. In the
first Ayobe cartoon published in the Nation of 27 October 2011, the police ask a motorist to
stop but he refuses because the signpost says it is forbidden to stop in that area. Police often
break traffic laws, for example, when they drive official police cars with worn out tyres.
However, the cartoonists are more critical when it comes to corruption amongst the police
(Ayobe, Nation, 3
rd
January 2012).



Ayobe (Nation, 27 October 2011)

19


Ayobe (Nation, 3 January 2012)

Police are also depicted as abetting crime. The Zaya Kukhongo cartoon below depicts a
scene where poor people come to procure subsidised fertiliser and other farm inputs.
Officers are selling the fertiliser at K2500 instead of K500. When the poor man complains
and threatens to report the public servants to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ATIKOLA
BULUKU), the public officer says the Anti-Corruption Bureau officers do not get to rural
villages. Says the Officer: If they come here, who will stay in their offices? Give us K3000.
We also need to benefit from the government! Thus the cartoon is not only about
corruption but also about police negligence of duty or cooperation in crime and failure of
the anti-corruption officers to detect corruption in rural areas.

20


Zaya Kunkhongo (Malawi News, 12 November 2011)

Cartoonists have also commented on international issues such as the invasion of Libya in
2011. According to a Weekend Times cartoonist, the invasion was motivated by the Wests
desire to milk Libya of its resources.


Weekend Times, 11 November 2011

The newspaper cartoonist has been so effective in their political commentary that President
Mutharika once responded to a regular Nation cartoon, Point of Order, that actually
mocked the fictional protesters who planned to march in the streets in protest against a
continued dry spell. He responded that he did not make rain. Malawian cartoonists have
21
been recognised. In 2012, a foreign embassy asked them to form an organisation to protect
their work and even invited them to display their work in Lilongwe.

Cartooning has also been used by the MBC. The radio programme, Makiyolobasi, has been
described by MBC management as radio cartoon meant to entertain radio listeners but it has
been unique in its one-sided criticism of the opposition and praise for the president.
Although an evaluation of the effect of the MBCs radio cartoon has not yet been carried out,
Makiyolobasi has helped politicians to be careful about what they as their words could be
used anonymously in a radio programme similar to Makiyolobasi.

Providing civic education
In addition to promoting accountability through publicising actions and decisions by the
government, civil society and the private sector, mass media also affect politics through their
contribution to political socialisation of citizens. This is done mainly by educating the public
on key aspects of politics and the political process, such as the responsibility of the state and
the rights and duties of citizens. This civic education plays an important role in aiding the
development of democracy because it empowers citizens to demand accountability by the
state and to exercise their rights effectively and perform their obligations fully.

The media also provide specific information related to particular aspects of the political
process. For example, in elections, the media can serve as a key source of political
information about specific candidates, political parties, policies and ideologies. This enables
voters to make informed choices. They can provide a forum for political debate among the
candidates, parties, and the electorate. They can also encourage all citizens including the
disadvantaged in society to take part in elections.

Since Malawi revived genuinely competitive elections in 1993, mass media in Malawi have
played a significant role in providing voters with information on various aspects of the
electoral process, including the legal rights and duties of voters, policies of contesting
parties, personalities of candidates, the conduct of campaign meetings and the general
administration of the electoral process by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

Manda (2005) noted that while public radio and television were clearly biased towards the
ruling party, private media tried to offer objective voter education during the 2004 general
22
elections. The trend continued in later elections. Despite the agreement, publicly signed in
2008, between the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and the Media to report all
candidates fairly (http://www.mec.org.mw/Elections/CodesOfConduct/MalawiMedia/),
electoral observers and the MEC media monitoring unit concluded that TVM (MBC TV) and
MBC (Radios 1 & 2) dedicated more time to the DPP candidate who doubled as incumbent
president and presidential candidate. The short message system (SMS) on mobile phones was
also used by private individuals to urge people to vote for specific candidates. In their
pullouts Poll Alert and Political Index, the Daily Times and The Nation newspapers,
respectively, carried summaries or discussions of party manifestos or profiles of presidential
candidates.

Mediating in conflicts
The mass media can be a useful tool in mediation, as when they aid conflict resolution and
pacify belligerent communities. In Malawi this role has been minimal in the media except
for occasionally asking communities or politicians to live in peace with each other. For
example, the phone-in programmes on most radio stations have been used to tackle burning
issues and protagonists are invited to the studios to respond directly or face each other.
However, through hate speech, the media can also foment intertribal conflicts as Radio-
Tlvision Libre des Milles Collines did in Rwanda in 1994, which action led to the
internecine massacre of over 800 thousand Hutus and Tutsis. Conflict can also erupt as a
result of medias unfair treatment of certain political or ethnic entities. This process of
deliberately trivialising some people or issues with the aim of stereotyping others and
creating a monoculture is called symbolic annihilation (Tuchman, 1978).

Manipulating the public
Because of their potential to influence peoples knowledge and views, the media may not
only be used to help citizens to make up their own minds on issues, but they may also be
used in a negative way to deliberately shape the opinion of the public into accepting
economic, political and social relations of power which benefit the powerful as normal. This
use of the media is called propaganda. As Hilters propagandist Josef Goebels once put it,
When you tell a lie often enough, [people] will believe you. In the same way, journalists and
media owners may circulate oppressive ideas. As a result, instead of educating the people to
throw off economic and social oppression, the media can subtly train the masses to accept
their shackles and even to see them as normal (see Chomsky & Herman, 1988). Thus, the
23
media can become purveyors of ideas that benefit particular elites such as the rich, the
ruling elite, and the educated to the detriment of the poorly educated. Propaganda can also
be used to extreme and destructive effect by stirring up hatred against a particular race or
ethnic group to benefit the ruling elite, as Hitler did in Nazi Germany against the Jews, and
the Hutu extremists who used Radio-Tlvision Libre des Mille Collines to demonise the
Tutsis and even to incite Hutus to kill Tutsis.

Antonio Gramsci (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-gram.htm) described the environment in
which the media and the public accept the oppressive ideas or ideologies of the powerful as
the dominant hegemony. The mass media, coupled with religions training institutions,
seminaries and madras, film, music and theatre production houses like Hollywood are
efficient and powerful vehicles or apparatuses of public control and propagation of ideology.
They function subtly in delivering the dominant ideology. Althuser (1989) called them
Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). Politicians are aware of the power of the media to
change the dominant ideology by, for example, providing contesting opinions, setting a
political different agenda and exposing power abuse. This explains, in part, why elites (the
government, businesses, and politicians) often try to control the media through ownership,
censorship and even arrests and murder of journalists

In Malawis history propaganda has been used by all governments to some extent, but it was
mostly used during the one-party era of President Banda as we have already discussed in this
chapter. The difference between hegemony and propaganda is very thin. While hegemony is
delivered subtly (such as in schools), propaganda is disseminated overtly particularly during
electoral campaigns.

DO THE MEDIA INFLUENCE VOTING PATTERNS?
Soon after the announcement of the results of the 2004 election, The Nation asked its readers
whether the public media influenced their vote. The responses to the questions appeared in
the newspapers Political Index of 1 June 2004. It concluded that only one person out of ten
doubted the influence of the MBC on the outcome of the 2004 vote.

From the responses given by The Nations readers, one may be tempted to conclude that the
mass media (MBC in the case of Malawi) influenced peoples choices during elections.
24
However, if we consider the following facts, it is not clear that mass media in Malawi do
have such considerable influence among voters.
In 1993 the MCP was in control of all public media but still lost the referendum on
whether the political system in Malawi ought to be changed to a multiparty system. (In
fact, the Central Region was the only region to have a majority in favour of the one-party
system advocated by the MCP).
In 1994 MCP was still in control of all public media but lost the general election (the
Central Region voted for the MCP, the Northern Region for AFORD, and the Southern
Region for UDF).
In 1999 UDF was in control of the public media, but only got majority wins in the
Southern Region.
In 2000 UDF was in control of the media and won local government elections but there
was voter apathy particularly in the Northern and Central Regions.
In 2004 UDF was in control of the media and the UDF presidential candidate won but
the MCP got more seats (despite lack of media support) and independent candidates won
even where the UDF and public media dominated. The Northern and Central Regions still
voted against the UDF.
In 2005 President Mutharika of the UDF party was in control of the public media but his
official UDF candidates lost by-elections in his own constituency in Thyolo and in the
vice presidents constituency in Nkhota Kota.
In early 2006 President Mutharika formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP),
which later contested in six by-elections and won all.
In 2009 President Mutharika and the DPP had a landslide electoral victory. Like all
suiting governments did before, the DPP was in control of all government media (MBC
radio and TV) and they got the endorsement of all eminent chiefs. Additionally, the DPP
used social mobilisation techniques unheard of in the history of campaigning in Malawi.
A mobile video van, a fleet of sturdy jeeps, pick-ups and buses toured the whole country.
Some seemed convinced that the media made the DPP win. However, the same campaign
tactics were used in the 2009 and 2011 by-elections in Zomba to fill the seat vacated by
the Vice President Joyce Banda and that which fell vacant following the death of
Professor Moses Chirambo in the Rumphi central constituency. However, the DPP,
which had won overwhelmingly in both constituencies lost to an independent candidate
in Zomba and an AFORD candidate in Rumphi, both of whom had virtually no resources
at their disposal.
25

In short, incumbent presidents tend to use the state media for political purposes in general to
build the image of their party as well as for electoral purposes in particular to win votes.
However, this does not always work in their favour.

This goes to show that, contrary to what most people believe that is that media influence
voting by playing on the psyche of voters field research has consistently shown the media
to have only limited effects. In 1960, after an extensive review of the effects research,
Klapper wrote that the media could not have direct effects as there always were predisposing
factors. He said the media were not the sole cause of effects (see Kunczik 1988). Further,
Klapper wrote:
Persuasive mass communication functions far more frequently as an agent of
reinforcement than as an agent of change. Reinforcement or at least constancy of
opinion is typically found to be the dominant effect. (1960, cited by Morley 1992:
48).

Schramm (1974) who, in the 1960s, believed the media were information multipliers and
could change behaviour and modernise poor societies, also acknowledged that the media
audience is active and negotiates the messages it confronts.
He wrote:

The social aegis under which the message comes, the receivers social relationship to
the sender, the perceived social consequences of accepting it or acting upon it must
be put together with an understanding of the symbolic and structural nature of the
message, the conditions under which it is received, the abilities of the receiver and his
innate and learned responses (Schramm 1974: 7)

Thus, Klapper and Schramms observations could be helpful in understanding why there
seems to be a hazy relationship between media use and election results in Malawi since
1993. However, it must be emphasised that the fact that there seems to be no empirical
evidence to suggest that media influence voter behaviour does not mean that media have no
influence on human behaviour and attitudes. Action research by Farm Radio International
proved that those who regularly listen to radio are five times more likely to change their
behaviour and adopt a new habit (Farm Radio International, 2011). Studies evaluating the
26
impact of Radio Listening Clubs on local communities have also shown that because of
participating in the clubs, communities are able to speak out against economic problems and
challenge their political representatives such that in target areas in Zimbabwe, Zambia and
Malawi where the Radio Listening Clubs have existed for over five years, essential
infrastructure (water points, trading centres, police units, school blocks, and footbridges),
has been erected. In the same areas, women have been reported to speak out against
domestic violence, and suppression of freedom of expression (Warnock, 2001; Banda, 2006;
Manyozo,2005; Manda, 2011; Chimala, 2011). Thus, as Neuman and Guggenheim (2011)
have observed, media have long term and cumulative effects on human behaviour.

Summary
Mass media can have both a positive and a negative influence in society and politics.
The media has the potential to play a positive role by:
providing civic education on peoples rights and electoral processes.
providing checks and balances and playing the role of a pillar of integrity and whistle
blower against abuse of power and corruption, thus helping promote good governance.
helping in mediating and solving conflicts by giving the belligerents a voice and acting
as a negotiation forum in times of politically motivated conflicts.

The media has the potential to have a negative role by
misinforming or deliberately distorting the truth out of business, political reasons or
because some journalists are biased and lack journalistic skills and education.
being used as propaganda tools by elites for a variety of reasons, but often to ensure
society as a whole accepts the status quo although it is not beneficial to the masses, or, in
extreme cases, to incite division or hatred between different ethnic groups, political
parties, or races.

In terms of the medias potential to influence voters, research indicates that their impact in
this respect is limited. They tend to reinforce rather than change the way people vote.

MEDIA ASSOCIATIONS AND THEIR IMPACT
It is also worth noting that the mass media in Malawi have affected politics through the
activities of some of their various associations. Examples include the Journalists Association
of Malawi (JAMA) which, in the past, organised debates among political contestants during
27
elections, and press clubs such as the Lilongwe Press Club which has been involved in civic
education and public debates on issues affecting the nation. Also active in directly promoting
good governance are specialist journalism organisations such as the Forum for
Environmental Communicators (FECO), the Media Association for Human Rights
Advancement (MAHRA) and the Media and Aids Society Organisation (MASO) and the
Journalists Association against AIDS (JA AIDS). The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA Malawi) has been very active in the political process by promoting
and defending freedom of the media and proposing bills to change laws unfavourable to free
media practice in Malawi. MISA Malawi has defended journalists who have suffered
harassment or arrest. Experience in Malawi has shown that media associations can make an
important and direct contribution to the political process by actively engaging in civic
education and promoting transparency and accountability.

The Media Council of Malawi was very instrumental in establishing links and agreements
between the media, the MEC and political parties on fair coverage of elections. The
Photographers Association of Malawi (photama) has also been instrumental in training
photographers in taking news worthy and ethical photographs. The Journalists Union of
Malawi (JUMA) has also trained journalists in election reporting among other areas.

These trainings has been important during elections because it has helped journalists take
balanced and politically relevant pictures that illustrate the event.

CHALLENGES MASS MEDIA FACE IN MALAWI
Failure to provide universal access
If only a few people have access to radio, television, newspapers, magazines and other mass
media, the majority will have limited knowledge about the activities of political actors, will
not be able to fully participate in public debate, and will not be able to make political choices
that are fully informed. Fortunately, in Malawi, access to the most ubiquitous medium, radio
is not a problem as in some villages people have formed radio listening clubs. They save
battery power until when they need the radio most. However, access to electronic media is
hampered by expenses incurred in powering up radio sets and buying television sets.
According to some estimates, 64 to 80% of the population in Malawi has access to radio sets
while for television and newspapers, the ownership figures are dismal (see Malawi
Government, 2009). Access to print media is hindered by not only the cost and uneven
28
distribution of newspapers, magazines and other publications but also low levels of literacy,
particularly among women, only 54% of whom can read, compared to 75% of men. In
addition, most mass circulation newspapers in Malawi are elitist because they are written in
English which is understood by a relatively small sector of society (Hall & Ham 1994).

Political interference and harassment
Since mass media have the potential to be used to influence public opinion and the political
choices that people make, their ownership and control are often sought by those who hold or
aspire to have political power. The political views of those who own and/or control
particular media will normally determine the manner in which the media will perform their
various roles as described earlier in this chapter. The political inclination of the owners of
any particular radio or television station, or newspaper, magazine or any other print
medium is likely to influence or affect the way the media report news and their degree of
openness. In some cases, such bias may be subtle.

Most scholars of mass media agree that the political biases of owners and controllers of mass
media limit the ability of the media to inform members of the public about the activities of
political actors, provide the space for public debate, and assist the public to make informed
political choices objectively. In relation to print media in Malawi, it is worth noting that both
of the countrys daily newspapers are owned by companies that are associated with
prominent politicians. As noted earlier in this chapter, The Nation and the Daily Times are
published by companies associated with power and politics in Malawi. Partisan ownership is
also evident in relation to electronic media. Not only are most community radio stations,
such as Radio Maria and Radio Islam, operated by religious groups that use them explicitly
to promote their faiths, but a number of private radio stations are also owned by politicians,
including a former president whose company operates Joy Radio FM and the son of a
prominent opposition politician who has a controlling interest in Power FM 101 radio
station.

In Malawi, politics does not affect mass media only in the case of print media and private
and community electronic media. Political interference also accounts for the well-
documented breaches by the MBC of its legal obligations to encourage free and informed
opinion on all matters of public interest, to function without any political bias and
independently of any person or body of persons, and to provide balanced coverage of any
29
elections. Political interference with the operations of the MBC is possible largely because it
lacks sufficient structural and operational independence. By law, the president appoints
members of the board of directors of MBC and decides on their chairperson. In turn, the
board appoints the corporations director general (although one was directly appointed by
the president). The operational independence of the MBC is limited in that it relies on
parliament for its core funding, which it supplements through the sale of air-time to
advertisers.

The MBC makes a valuable contribution to the political process in Malawi through various
programmes that provide information and facilitate debate of matters of public interest.
However, there is evidence that it tends to promote the partisan interests of the president and
ruling party, particularly during elections. In the 2004 elections, for example, the observer
mission of the European Union systematically monitored coverage of the elections by various
media and concluded that MBC had shown overwhelming bias in favour of the ruling
coalition, allocating 97.7% of its electoral coverage air-time to UDF/AFORD/NCD and 89.6%
of air-time to the ruling partys presidential candidate. No remarkable change was noted in
succeeding elections. As Manda (2005) points out, the private media were also biased
against the government.
A further constraint on media freedom has been the systematic harassment of journalists by
political forces and others. Such harassment has included the detention of journalists. In
other cases, journalists have been assaulted or had their equipment damaged by political
party activists who were unhappy with the coverage of their parties by particular media, and
on at least one occasion a number of soldiers invaded the premises of a newspaper,
intimidated staff and damaged equipment because the newspaper had published an article
critical of the army.

Legal constraints and regulation
Chapter 4 of the Constitution of Malawi, which is usually referred to as the Bill of Rights,
guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of opinion. Every
person in Malawi is free to express him- or herself and publish his or her opinions. In
addition to having a Bill of Rights in its constitution, Malawi has signed up to a number of
treaties which guarantee freedom of expression. Such treaties include the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which, in Article 19, says, Everyone has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression; this includes freedom to hold opinions without
30
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas though any media and
regardless of frontiers. As a member of the African Union, Malawi is equally bound by
Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, adopted at Nairobi in 1981,
which entitles every individual to receive information and to express and disseminate his or
her opinions within the law.

Despite the freedoms and rights guaranteed by the constitution and various treaties, the
freedom of mass media in Malawi is constrained by a number of laws and economic and
other factors. Like all other former British colonies, Malawi inherited most of the laws in
force today from the British. These laws have not changed much since independence, and
include those that purport to restrict the freedom with which mass media may gather and
publish information and opinions. Many of these laws seem to contradict the spirit of the
constitution regarding freedom of the press.

It is true that the validity of any law which is inconsistent with the constitution may be
challenged in court. Nevertheless, laws such as that of libel and the penal code not only place
limits on media freedom in order to legitimately protect the rights of others, but also have a
chilling effect on the media by encouraging an undue amount of self-censorship.

Indeed, the spirit of crusading journalism, which is characterised by investigation into
corruption, has died away since the institutionalisation of multiparty politics due to
government fines. Several senior ministers have been involved in shady deals since Malawi
reverted to multiparty politics. The Democrat newspaper uncovered the Field York Scam
regarding the purchase of notebooks for the free primary school education introduced by
the UDF in 1994. It also covered the alleged abuse of resources at the Reserve Bank, where
huge sums of money were used to build brick fences for a staff house. The Chronicle has also
tried to unearth a lot of dirt involving public servants. Unfortunately, the newspapers were
sued for defamation and the result has been devastating for the media. The Democrat shut
down although the Minister responsible for the Field York Scam was retied and jailed using
the same evidence for the Democrat was made to pay damages. The Chronicle, a bitter critic
of the Mutharika administration folded in 2006. The publisher accused the Guardian,
owned by President Mutharikas daughter, of unfair labour practices by offering
employment to almost all employees of the Chronicle. However, despite massive government
support in terms of advertisements, the Guardian also closed shop in 2012. This seems to
31
confirm further the fact for mass media to succeed management skills are more important
than political backing.

In addition to the presence of laws that restrict media freedom, there is an absence of laws to
facilitate the gathering of information. Although the constitution provides that every person
has the right to have access to information which is held by the state or any of its organs,
there is no legislation which provides for the mechanism and procedures for applying for
such access. In general, the army, police, prisons, and most government institutions have
become less secretive and have public and media relations officers who speak on behalf of
those organisations and periodically brief journalists. Nevertheless, journalists still
experience delays in crosschecking information because only the appointed spokespersons,
and no other officer, speak for their institutions. In any case, in the absence of access to
information legislation, public officers may deny the media critical information and thereby
limit the publics right to be properly informed.

The operation of mass media requires regulation in order to ensure that in playing their role
in the political process, the media do not exceed the limits of their freedoms and act in
accordance with legal, ethical and other applicable norms. In Malawi, there is a
fundamental difference between the regulation of print and that of electronic media. The
former is done largely through self-regulation which involves the media themselves
formulating a code of ethics which is enforced by a body established by the media. This does
not mean that journalists become immune from the laws of the country but that violations of
professional ethics are primarily settled within the media. In practice, the foundations for
self-regulation among print media in Malawi exist in the form of a code of conduct and the
Media Council of Malawi which is mandated to enforce it. The code is available for free at
www.mediacouncilmalawi.org.

In contrast to the print media, the electronic media is heavily regulated by the state. The
regulation of broadcasting in Malawi is the legal responsibility of the MACRA and is
governed primarily by the Communications Act (Act No 41 of 1998). The act grants MACRA
wide powers to regulate broadcasting, including that of planning the use of, and allocating
radio frequencies. The act obliges MACRA to perform a wide range of related functions
including licensing broadcasters; providing advice to the minister of information on
broadcasting regulations or policies; and monitoring activities of broadcasting licensees to
32
ensure their compliance with the terms and conditions of their licenses and applicable
regulations.

The board of directors of MACRA is appointed by the president who also chooses the boards
chairperson. The director general is appointed by the minister of information who also
approves the appointment of the deputy director general. Although MPs, government
ministers, and party functionaries are disqualified from appointment to the board, the
secretary to the president and secretary for information are ex officio members and the
board is answerable to the minister of information who is answerable to the president. Legal
experts have argued that this is likely to influence its decisions on who should be licensed or
not or which license should be revoked or not.

In addition, MACRA has failed in its responsibilities because it has not enforced the law
against the MBC when the latter has failed to provide impartial broadcasting as required by
its public service broadcasting obligations. This may be because MACRA itself is as
vulnerable to political interference as is the MBC, since its board of directors and director
general are appointed by the executive branch of government and has among the members
of the board senior civil servants, albeit in an ex officio capacity. This may limit its
independence in relation to enforcing the Communications Act in cases of pro-government
and pro-ruling party bias by MBC. It may also explain why MACRA left TVM (later MBC
TV), whose board of directors is also appointed by the president, to operate without a license
or statutory mandate from 1999 to 2004.

The regulatory framework for broadcasters in Malawi also includes a code of ethics which is
appended to the Communications Act and lays down norms which would facilitate a positive
contribution to the dissemination of information about the political process, facilitation of
public debate and contribution to the making of informed political choice among the public.
Among the relevant norms are those which require broadcasters to report news truthfully,
accurately, objectively and in a balanced manner. During any election period, the media
should ensure equitable treatment of political parties, election candidates and electoral
issues; separate opinion, supposition, rumour or allegation from fact in reports; and to
present differing points of view when broadcasting controversial issues. The code also
entitles broadcasters to comment on and criticise any actions or events of public importance.
However, for various reasons, this code of ethics has not always been adhered to and there is
33
evidence of biased and inaccurate reporting mostly due to political partisanship and bribery
(so-called logistics, chipondamthengo or chequebook journalism in Malawi, brown
envelopes in Kenya, and envelopementalism in India,), and not lack of training as was the
case previously as many journalists have since gone through professional journalism
training.

Economic constraints
Harsh economic conditions have also constrained media operations. According to
Kanyangwa and Mkwaila (2011), Malawis stringent media regulatory practice has
restricting new entrants into the media arena. Advertising, which is the lifeline of newspaper
printing and broadcast material gathering in Malawi, is hard to come by. Most of the
newspapers that have folded since 1994 could not survive because clients who had hitherto
purchased advertising could no longer do so due to the poor economic environment, which
includes lack of foreign exchange and exorbitant costs of importing newsprint, audio
recorders and studio equipment.

Lack of professionalism
As mentioned previously in this chapter, biased, incorrect or poor reporting in mass media
can be a result of journalists being poorly educated, trained or dishonest. In all their formal
training journalists are taught to abide by a code of ethics and professional standards which
demand that journalists be fair, objective and thorough in their reporting. However, some
journalists deliberately do not adhere to this and argue that nobody eats mass media ethics.

EVALUATING THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN MALAWIS DEMOCRACY
The USAID Centre for Democracy and Governance sums up the role of the media in politics
and democracy, in particular, as follows:
Access to information is essential to the health of democracy First it ensures that citizens
make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation.
Second, information serves a checking function by ensuring that elected representatives
uphold their oaths of office and carry out the wishes of those who elected them. (1999: 3)

Despite their many failings and weaknesses, the Malawi media have been generally
instrumental in keeping the countrys democracy afloat by playing the function of an
integrity pillar. Some mass media outlets play a more important role than others. For
34
instance, the media owned by the government has tended to be biased towards those in
power. In contrast, despite difficult working conditions, private, community, web-based or
online media and social media have generally been diligent in contributing to the political
process by facilitating transparency, accountability and the rule of law through the
provision of information about the political process, providing a platform for public debate
and helping people to make informed choices. The government though thought some
community radio stations were biased towards opposition parties.

Despite their contribution to the political process, mass media in Malawi have to improve.
Critics point out that mass media in Malawi still display insufficient analysis of issues, failure
to follow-up on stories, unethical behaviour among journalists and occasional political bias.
Others also point at the tendency during elections to focus on personalities rather than
raising issues of critical importance to the well-being of the population such as access to
clean water, access to land, equity in development and good quality education. Some critics
have even accused some media of being deliberately dishonest and wilfully failing to
promote positive human values.

The media in Malawi also face many problems as mentioned in this chapter, such as poor
overall coverage, political interference, economic constraints and legal challenges.

Despite the high expectations from the public, it must be acknowledged that democracy and
independent media in Malawi are relatively young and therefore one should expect the
media to have teething problems. In any case, media can never be free from criticism. Even
in older democracies such as the USA, France, and India, many accuse the media of bias,
arrogance, lack of education, sensationalism, and adversarial attitudes towards government.
What is important is that media in a democracy must observe objectively, explain issues
exhaustively and avoid being politically partisan if they are to succeed in their role as
guardians of democracy and engage the powerful and hold them accountable for all their
decisions.

In short, mass media play several vital roles in society and in the political process. When the
mass media exercise their franchise responsibly, they provide critical information, contribute
to civic and political education, and provide an open space for public debate.

35
SUMMARY
It is clear that the mass media have been at the centre of political communication in Malawi
since the colonial period. Mass media are a key part in the political process, whether they
play a positive role or a negative one in the political process. Mass media in Malawi have a
long history during which their freedom and diversity have been determined by the general
political environment, such as the existence of a one party state and then its replacement by
a liberal political dispensation. Currently mass media in Malawi provide information about
the political process, afford people the platform for engaging in public debate and assist
them to make informed political choices, including during elections. However, the political
interests of those who own or control mass media do affect their ability to discharge their
responsibilities properly, as is evident in the performance of the MBC. The constitution
guarantees media freedom but, in practice, its exercise is constrained by a number of
restrictive laws, a harsh economic environment and a political culture of intolerance to
dissenting views.

QUESTIONS
1. Describe two critical roles of the media in Malawian society.
2. In what ways are the mass media important in elections?
3. Give Malawian examples or cases that support the view that the mass media are whistle
blowers and pillars of integrity.
4. What constraints do mass media face in Malawi today?
5. What are the constraints of using social media and online newspapers in the political
process in Malawi?
6. How important are media associations in the political process?
7. Explain in your own words, the following terms: mass media, fourth estate, agenda
setting, public sphere, hegemony, propaganda, and community media.
8. Some people accuse the mass media of fomenting political chaos in Malawi because of
their failure to analyse issues properly and their propensity to tell lies. In your view,
could government function without the media?
9. Some people believe courts have been too harsh towards the media by instituting high
fines and punishing the media with laws which are in conflict with the republican
constitution. Explain whether you agree or disagree with the sentiment.
10. Discuss what effect mass media have had on voting during elections in Malawi.
11. Imagine that one day all media decide to suspend their operations. Describe the day.
36

Glossary
Commoditification (of News) Treating news as market goods.

Community media Media established and run by local communities

Hegemony This exists when the cultural, religious and/or political
ideas of one group of people dominate a society. The
media are often used as conduit for such ideas
promotion.

Media effects Real or perceived influence of the media. Researchers
have theorised but hardly found direct (hypodermic
needle), limited (minimal). Some have argued there are
no effects while others, particularly Marxists says the
effects are cumulative and long term.


Online journalism/media Interactive internet based journalism/media. Online
journalism as sometimes also referred to as New Media.

Propaganda The spreading of information and/or news to
manipulate peoples ideas and feelings

Social Media Mass Media and social media share a lot in common
but social media often refer to internet based media
where any user can generate and publish content
without censorship and the filters that are common in
the editorial process of mass media news.

Soap (opera) A series of dramatised radio or television episodes of a
story.

37
Symbolic Annihilation A media editing and production process, particularly
common in Malawi during election campaigns, in
which certain people and/or ideas are deliberately
trivialised; that is, they are stereotyped to appear bad,
socially unacceptable, useless, untenable and unhelpful.

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Further reading
Chimombo, S., and M. Chimombo (1996) The Culture of Democracy, Zomba: WASI
Publications

Kondowe, E., Kishindo, P. and Mkandawire, F. (2011), Journalism Practice in Malawi:
History, Progress, and Prospects. Lilongwe: UNESCO-Malawi

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) (2003), Political Communication, Lilongwe: Konrad
Adenauer Foundation (TYP Series)

McNair, B (1999), An Introduction to Political Communication. London: Routledge.
Ott, M. et al (eds.) (2000), Malawis Second Democratic Elections: Process, Problems, and
Prospects, Blantyre: CLAIM

Ott, M. et al. (eds.) (2005), The Power of the Vote: Malawis 2004 Parliamentary and
Presidential Elections, Zomba: Kachere

Reinhardt, H. and N. Patel (2003), Malawis Process of Democratic Transition, Lilongwe: KAS