Detained in the line of duty

When journalists went marching on May 3, World Press Freedom Day (WPFD), they were a poster short of last year’s haul—one calling on government to “open advertising in all print media”. Its absence was a testimony to the commendable step Malawi President Joyce Banda took by scraping off the ban his predecessor, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, imposed on some media institutions. Also abolished with the flags of Mutharika’ draconian rule is value added tax (VAT) which government imposed on newsprints as well as a law giving the Minister of Information powers to ban any publication deemed offensive and undesirable by government.

However, Montfort Media’s journalist Ernest Mahwayo, who was arrested for photographing Mutharika’s private home and marble mausoleum at Ndata Farm in Thyolo two years ago, says he would prefer carrying a placard exclaiming: “Total Freedom Now!”

“Malawians cannot fully celebrate media freedom until the Access to Information Bill is passed into a law,” says Mahwayo, who was nabbed on September 11 2011—the day his wife was expecting to deliver their firstborn son.

The subeditor of Mkwaso newspaper remembers how armed police officers guarding the estate manhandled him, confiscated his camera and detained him for three days at Limbe Police Station. Having been charged with conduct likely to cause breach of peace, he surrendered his passport to the court in exchange for bail, something that reportedly cost him a trip to the US.

This is the penalty the 33-year-old, who was acquitted in September last year, had to pay for practising journalism—not a quest to kill Mutharika, as President Joyce Banda accuses the media of doing, but to lift the heavy lid on the symbol of the former president’s wealth which remained a heavily guarded secret and an undeclared asset until his death on April 5 last year.

During the July 20 2011 demonstrations, Malawians demanded to know the value and origin of Ndata house belonging to Mutharika, which he called “Villa Casablanca”, but it proved futile as the country is yet to enact an access to information law.

Like many, Mahwayo remembers Mutharika as a visionary leader determined to develop the country, but rates him the “worst enemy of the press.”

“It is embarrassing that journalists should be arrested while doing their job or that we continue to be ill-treated because some public officials think they are doing us a favour by giving us information. Access to information is a birthright of all,” he says.

On October 10 last year, online journalist Justice Mponda became the first media practitioner to be arrested under Banda’s one-year-old rule—allegedly for insulting the President.

Recently, the President put into question her commitment towards safeguarding press freedom when she rebuffed National Media Institute of Southern Africa efforts to lobby her to sign the Table Mountain Declaration of 2007 which calls African heads of State to repeal all bad and insulting laws.

Banda accused the press of seeking to kill her like they did Bingu, declaring that she does not read local newspapers because they are full of hatred towards her.

“You have been irritating me and now you want me to sign what?” wondered Banda during the meeting.

Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) regional chairperson Anthony Kasunda agrees that the outbursts could cast into uncertainty gains made towards the passing of the Access to Information Bill which has been gathering dust in the past decade.

Kasunda described the President’s approach as wrong.

“I wish there was a clear understanding that the media is only doing its job of providing checks and balances to the office of the President, not the person holding it. There was a time when Bingu thought the media was attacking him and he ended up putting in place repressive laws and policies,” he said.

Nonetheless, Kasunda saluted JB’s government for getting rid of Section 46, which threatened the existence of the media, VAT which left Malawians paying a high price to access information in newspapers, as well as the advertising clampdown which denied Nation Publications Limited revenue and Malawians vital information.

The changes saw Malawi taking a giant leap from position 146 to 75 on the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders in February this year.

Now, the Joyce Banda administration faces the new challenge of fulfilling its promise to pass the Access to Information which reached the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) in 2007, but was sent back to the drawers because it lacked a supporting policy.

Kasunda praised the President for demonstrating political will to pass the proposed legislation.

“The policy is complete and the only thing remaining is for all principal secretaries to meet, scrutinise it and send it to the OPC who will in turn send it to Parliament,” said Kasunda.

In an interview, Maclan Kanyang’wa, a lecturer in media criticism at the Polytechnic, says the media are doing their part.

“The onus is on government to open up. Government should speed up the enactment of the access to information legislation so that there are clear guidelines with regards to how public officials can deal with public records as requested for by the media,” he says.

Having survived a suppressive system, Mahwayo says it will be unfortunate if press freedom promises turn out to be what they were during her forerunner’s terms—mere rhetoric.