Malawi

At least seven journalists covering protests that took place in several cities during the past two days have been attacked by the police in Malawi. Some of the journalists were briefly detained. The government expressly banned radio stations from covering the demonstrations, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We are very disturbed by the particularly...

An amendment to Malawi's penal code, which became law last week, allows the government to ban any publication deemed contrary to public interest for an unspecified period of time, institutionalizing political censorship of the press, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.. On January 26, President Bingu wa Mutharika signed into law an amendment to Section 46 of the penal...

A reporter for a newspaper the government tried to ban says he has been arrested, and that police won't say why, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. Kandani Ngwira sent a mobile phone text message to the Associated Press Monday saying he had been arrested in Blantyre, Malawi's commercial center, and was being taken to the capital, Lilongwe. He says he wasn't told why he was being...

The Lilongwe Magistrate court has freed Gabriel Kamlomo, online editor for Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), a privately owned radio station. Kamlomo was accused of publishing "false information likely to cause public alarm". In a ruling issued on December 2, Senior Resident Magistrate Vikochie Ndovi said the court found Kamlomo with no case to answer, the Namibia-based Media Institute of...

The Malawi government has imposed a ban on the publication of weekly tabloid The Weekend Times. In a letter dated October 28, the National Archives of Malawi issued an immediate suspension of The Weekend Times on charges of failing to register the paper, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The letter cited the 1958 Printed Publications Act, which requires all...

Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika last week threatened to shut down newspapers that “tarnish” his government’s image. The president, who was speaking at an agriculture show in the capital city of Liongwe, seemed to be referring to a story in the privately-owned Malawi News Daily, reports said. The story quoted a report from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an economic...