Media hailed for raising alarm during disasters

Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) has hailed the media in the country for being active making an alarm during disasters such as floods.

The director of administration in the ministry of agriculture, Mccalum Sibande, said this on Monday in Salima when he officially opened a media training which was organized by MoAIWD with support from USAID through the New Alliance Policy Acceleration Support Project (NAPAS:MALAWI).

Sibande said: “Few months ago when the country and the Southern African region as a whole was dealing with the issue of hunger and undernutrition, which was largely caused by El Nino drought, the media ably disseminated vital messages that saved lives and enabled various stakeholders to act on time, including Government and development partners. The same can be said about the flooding situation that we experienced as a nation a couple of years ago.

Sibande said the disaster’s aftermath various interventions that were executed in our communities during times of crises were made possible in part because the media raised the alarm on pertinent challenges taking place in the communities. “This enabled timely response, based on the accurate information and messages that the media disseminated across this country. This bears witness to the life-saving role that media played and continues to play in our society,” he added.

The training which was held under the theme ‘Ethics and Evidence-Based Reporting: Avoiding Fake News in Agriculture’ saw journalists from various media houses narrating various challenges they face which may lead to fake news.

NAPAS senior programme manager and policy analyst Dr Athur Mabiso said the media training will improve the way in which journalists in the country do their work.

“The ministry of agriculture has in the past conducted media trainings, through the New Alliance Policy Acceleration Support (NAPAS) project, in an effort to improve the quality of journalism and reporting of agricultural issues in the country,” said Mabiso.