(MISA/IFEX) – Mollande Nkhata, Director of News and Current Affairs at the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), has been demoted to chief editor and ordered to withdraw from media activism. In a letter handed to him on 17 November 1997, Nkhata was also ordered to resign from the Malawi chapter of MISA, of which he is […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Mollande Nkhata, Director of News and Current
Affairs at the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), has been
demoted to chief editor and ordered to withdraw from media
activism. In a letter handed to him on 17 November 1997, Nkhata
was also ordered to resign from the Malawi chapter of MISA, of
which he is chairman. He has also been ordered to dissociate
himself from the Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ), the Media
Council of Malawi (MCM) and the Journalists Association of Malawi
(JAMA), or be summarily dismissed from the MBC.
Nkhata is being penalised for allegedly reporting the suggestion
by the opposition newspaper the “Daily Times” that President
Bakili Muluzi had lost his voice while at the Commonwealth Heads
of Government Meeting. The reported quote read: “We are also
trying to communicate with our reporter to give us more details.
She only told us the other day that our President has lost his
voice and that Dr. Chipeta (Foreign Affairs Minister) was talking
on his behalf.” However, Nkhata said the words should have been
attributed to his deputy Don Chimera, who spoke to the “Daily
Times” and not to him. Chimera could neither deny nor confirm
this when contacted by MISA on 18 November.
Nkhata sees the demotion as plain victimisation. “This has
been…systematic harassment,” he said.
Nkhata has occasionally been accused of siding with the
opposition parties and was recently ordered to stop supervising a
press review programme he introduced on Radio 2. Nkhata has also
been stopped from writing editorials for the station, a function
he has performed since the 1970s, he says.
“At one time I am supposed to have stolen an MBC cheque, a matter
they have since proven was a fabrication,” he said.
Nkhata says he is now surprised that he has been asked to resign
from MISA and other media organisations, a move he suspects is
meant to check his political activism. “I have always asked for
permission to go out and attend meetings by these organisations,
and authorities allowed me. I am therefore surprised that they
are now asking me to resign or get dismissed,” he said.
When news of Nkhata’s demotion first appeared in the newspapers,
the station’s director-general, Sam Gunde, denied the claims.
“Quote me anywhere. Nkhata has not been demoted. It’s not true,”
Gunde told MISA.
Meanwhile, Irene Banda, the journalist who covered President
Muluzi’s trip to the Commonwealth Heads meeting in Edinburgh,
Scotland, has been admonished and put on surveillance by MBC
management for “leaking” the story about Muluzi’s voice. On 12
November, she was summoned by management and accused of not being
“loyal to [the] government.” MBC believes Banda was the main
source of the “Daily Times” article and further accuses her of
giving “poor coverage of the president’s trip to the [United
Kingdom].”
According to an MBC management source, the story on Muluzi could
have been leaked from anyone in the broadcasting station because
Banda filed this story to MBC. It was never used until a similar
story appeared in the “Daily Times”. MBC tried to salvage it by
broadcasting a censored version that attempted to water down the
issue.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
apply to Mollande Nkhata in the determination of any disciplinary
cases against him
victimised for performing their journalistic functions
broadcaster funded by taxpayers, the professional work of its
staff must therefore not be reliant on personal loyalty to
President Muluzi and his government but rather on an objective
portrayal of viewpoints
Appeals To
Rt. Hon. Minister Sam Mpasu
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
P.O. Box 494
Blantyre, Malawi
Tel: +265 623 976 / 620 266
Fax: +265 620 807 / 620 039Rt. Hon. Minister Sam Mpasu
The Ministry of Information
Private Bag 310
Lilongwe 3, Malawi
Tel: +265 780 581 / 783 233
Fax: +265 784 568Director-General Sam Gunde
Malawi Broadcasting Corporation
P.O. Box 30133
Chichiri
Blantyre 3
Tel: +265 671 222
Fax: +265 671 257 / 670 280
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
