PAPER TIGERS: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN MALAWI, 1961 -

2001
Author(s): John Lwanda
Source: The Society of Malawi Journal , 2002, Vol. 55, No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-23
Published by: Society of Malawi - Historical and Scientific

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 PAPER TIGERS: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN MALAWI, 1961 - 2001

John Lwanda
(Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh)

Papi alembile? (Where is it written?)

Popular rhetorical question in a largely (1960's) illiterate Yao area.

A mtola nkhani mudzifunsal Mudzifunsal (You journalists should

ask! Research!) Kamenya Dedza Choir, 1993.1

It is, in some paradigms, now almost traditional to blame most post

colonial failures on colonial strictures. It is, similarly, also common to assert
that the media can never be free of the dictates of its ownership and that the
public gets the media it deserves. This paper wishes to argue that, despite the
previous colonial strictures and owners' dictates, the media can indeed be
free; however, this freedom is not achieved by, in a poor country with high
illiteracy rates, following conventional media infra-structural and
methodological paradigms. As this narrative of the rise and fall of the
independent media in Malawi shows, the freedom obtained from these
strategies may not be of the sustainable variety. While critics of the loss of
press freedom in sub-Saharan Africa often concentrate on the acts of
government and ruling power in reducing this press freedom,2 this essay
concentrates on and argues that the internal dynamics of, and the failings of,
the Malawi independent media itself also facilitated its own downfall.
Here the definition of the independent media is that of newspapers,
magazines and other media, like radio and magazines not owned, or
editorially controlled by the government of the day or political organizations
sympathetic to such government. In the context of Malawi, papers owned by
religious institutions and opposition parties are included in this definition.
The present treatise does not deal with writers of and publishers of books,
although some references to books and the freedom of writers to write are
implied.

Background
When the first mass of "free papers" hit the streets after John
Tembo's announcement of Dr Banda's declaration of a "free press" at the end
of 1992, there was a tacit understanding of confusion between the journalists,

Rwanda (1996: 154).

2 Cf. www.misanet.org/alerts/19980512.malawi.0.html and
www.freemedia.at/wpfr/world_m.htm.

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2 The Society of Malawi Journal

many of whom were finding their first freedom to write, the

publishers/owners, many of whose political and economic agendas were quite
advanced,3 and the public who were increasingly demanding the previously
forbidden fruits of independent thought and unbiased reading material. To
this list can be added the commentators, who hailed the new journals as free.
For a start, most of the so-called independent papers were, almost from the
beginning, hardly free. Many of them had been financed by achikulire (neo
patrimonials) investing in the outcomes of the transition. Further, there were,
from the beginning, multiple fixed and evolving agendas causing internal
strife and serving to imprison the new media both to the past and to a
mortgaged future. The reaction of the Financial Observer, one of Malawi's
earliest independent papers, in March 1993, to the banning of two of its newer
competitors, is illustrative. The Financial Observer is, here, torn in various
directions, including culture, press solidarity and competition:

Not many people were vocal about the banning of the Malawi
Democrat and UDF [United Democratic Front] News, two of
Malawi's latest publications... The Malawi Democrat, supported
by and reflecting the views of the Alliance for Democracy
(AFORD), specialized in a type of investigative reporting that
raised many eyebrows and appeared to mix fact with fiction
without drawing clear lines... The UDF News [also sought] to
highlight weaknesses in the ruling elite and expose bad policies
and practices among leaders, but fell short of in depth
investigation on a scale akin to that of its sister paper... The two
papers, both critical of the government... differed in the degree of
their severity, the Malawi Democrat being more biting than UDF
News... Their competitiveness, both for readers' cash and their
minds, underlies a tug of war which seems to be emerging
between AFORD and UDF, with the former claiming leadership
over the reform movement and the latter seeking to forge a broad
front embracing all concerned with change... The two papers had
infringed, according to some commentators, Malawian norms
regarding respect for privacy and the dignity of elderly persons....
the Malawi Democrat may not be easily forgiven as it is produced
outside the country and its editors seem to have a good knowledge
of journalism... the UDF News on the other hand is a different
case... Many believe it was led (sic) by the Democrat... With
proper counselling, and since the UDF News operates from within
the country, it is the hope ... that it can be encouraged to be more
objective, ethical, and therefore responsible in its coverage of
news and views...

3 Full details of this argument are given in Lwanda (1996).

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 3

This article is worth quoting at length for the insight it gives into the minds of
the journalists themselves in 1993, as well as for illustrating the various
general prejudices and other legacies held over from the Banda era. Firstly,
the paper appears, effectively, to be justifying the banning of its younger and
zealous competitors, until they are provided with "suitable counselling."
Secondly, it borrows one of the tools that Dr Banda had used to muzzle the
very press freedom the Financial Observer was trying to promote: respect for
elders. The implication that the aged should be protected from criticism
contrasted with the manner many elderly chiefs, and personalities like
Manoah Chirwa, were vilified over the years by the official media, the MBC,
Daily Times and Malawi News during Dr Banda's era. Third, there is a hint of
an anti-exile critique of the Democrat. The editorial was more accurate in its
contrasting of the UDF and AFORD, the former was a broad front, while the
latter, at this stage, claimed the high moral undiluted reformist ground. It is
also possible here to perceive, though not necessarily conclusively prove, a
pro-southern, pro-UDF and anti-Democrat slant in the Financial Observer's
own position in its use of the 'all concerned with change' phrase. The UDF
News was not staffed, contrary to the assertion, by inexperienced journalists;
included in its original team were distinguished journalists like Brown
Mpinganjira, Akwete Sande and graduates like Noah Chimpeni and Francis
Chibwe. The Malawi Democrat had an equal mix of founding experienced
journalists and academics like Frank Mayinga and Mapopa Chipeta and
young graduates like Hardy Nyirenda and Charles Simango. The suggestion
of the experienced Democrat leading the neophyte UDF News astray is, it is
argued, more a reflection of the anti-exile bias of the Financial Observer
(Lwanda, 1996: 154 - 168). Of particular interest are the suggestions of the
papers 'mixing fact with fiction', infringing 'norms of 'privacy' and that
properly counselled they could become 'objective, ethical' and 'responsible'.
Given that there had not existed an independent, free, responsible and ethical
press the year before, the Financial Observer here appears to have already
appropriated the role of guardian for itself.
The present narrative, covering 1961 to 2001, does not wish to
engage the reader on the intricacies of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial
oral tradition of news dissemination - the norm in non-literate culture - but to
point out the discursive, autocratic and democratic possibilities inherent in the
oral medium. The oral medium is after all more potent than the written
culture which, in Malawi, still only caters to a largely minority reading elite.
Suffice it to say that in parts of rural Malawi and among poor urban dwellers,
apart from radio broadcasts and information via primary schools or the
churches, the oral tradition, as in pre-colonial and colonial times, still plays a
large part. It is this legacy of the colonial and post-colonial failure to provide
universal education that we can legitimately ask colonialism to share with
post-colonialism.

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 4 The Society of Malatii Journal

We argue that the first shortcoming of the new and potential

independent media was paradoxically, therefore, its failure to cater to the non
literate sector. Orality was one of Dr Banda's main tools of governance (cf.
Mapanje, 1986; Mphande, 1996). Anything in the oral sphere had the
advantage of flexibility and the one who controlled the media in an oral
manner could disseminate the official view with flexibility. The MBC, in
1996, could be heard by, respectively, 75% of all men and 52% of all women
(UNIMA). In 1997, there were 2.6 million radios in Malawi compared to a
circulation of 40,000 for the daily newspaper. It is understandable that
colonial and post-colonial governments were reluctant to loosen their hold on
it. In contrast, in contemporary Malawi the role of the music industry in
disseminating popular messages into the public sphere has, until recently,
received scant attention (Lwanda 2001).

1961 - 1991
The history of the written and electronic media in Malawi (cf.
Pachai, 1972 and 1973 and others) has been biased in favour of powerful
interest groups. From the beginning publications like Aurora (1884), Central
African Planter (1895), Life and Work, the Likoma Diocesan Quarterly paper
(1893), British Central African Gazette (1894) and others were there to serve
the interests of the missionaries or the colonial planters (settlers and estate
owners). No sustained tradition of middle-class or rural African newspapers
was established during the colonial era. Elite Malawians read the European
oriented papers. The newsletters associated with churches and the
government naturally promoted the official view. The few African
newspapers or mimeographs that appeared like Zoona, Congress Circular and
Ntendere pa nchito, and then the Malawi News, started by Aleke Banda in
December 1959, were protest papers.4 During the run up to self-government,
when a number of parties, some transient, existed (United Federal Party,
Christian Democratic Party, Malawi Congress Party, the Congress Liberation
Party of TDT Banda), and the Mbadwa (Citizens) Party, a number of
broadsheets supporting the various viewpoints emerged, including the
government's Bwalo la Nyasaland. There were also the church owned,
mostly quarterly and monthly, papers like the Likuni Catholic Diocese's
Odini (originally called The African), and the Church of Central African
Presbyterian's Kuunika. Out of all these only the Malawi News emerged as a
fully-fledged newspaper; surviving because it had a mass audience and was
actively sold and distributed to an essentially captive, but appreciative

4 Interestingly, the change from the Malawi News as an organ of the

independence questing MCP to an organ of the one party state and middle
class journal, occurred within a two to three year period; the same time period
as noted for the conversion of the 1990s papers from protest papers to
government or government controlled newspapers.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 5

audience given the previous poverty of reading material directed at literate

Africans. There was also the fact that there was a genuine yearning for
information by a politicised population.
It was the Malawi News that set a precedent for future journalists in
its first few years. It was used by the MCP, between 1960 and 1961, to see off
the threat posed by the Christian Democratic Party (CDP), which was viewed
by Dr Banda as the tool of the Catholic Church. In a series of confrontations
between the Catholic Archbishop and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), a
confrontation led by the then journalist Aleke Banda and Orton Chirwa as
strategists and executioners, the paper was cleverly used to marginalize and
finish off the CDP. Whether derived from the previous colonial media
monopoly or not, the model of journalists, given Aleke Banda and Orton
Chirwa's positions as role models, using their papers to see off political
opponents was established at this stage (cf. Schoffeleers, 1999: 17 - 90).
By the time of independence in 1964 Malawi had only two
newspapers, the Nyasaland Times and the Malawi News; and the MBC was
the only legal broadcasting radio station.5 After self-government in 1963, the
Nyasaland Times soon found itself in the role of a white owned minority
newspaper generally critical of nationalists and specifically of moves towards
independence. This worked initially, but as the white Malawi establishment,
led by Michael Blackwood, achieved an understanding of elites with Dr
Banda, the Times criticism became more muted. However, for most of the
period 1961 to 1964, the Times could be regarded as an independent
newspaper. One factor here was the expatriate quotient of its staff. However,
it is noticeable that, even with expatriate staff, towards and beyond 1964, this
independence exponentially becomes diluted under Dr Banda and the MCPs
diktats (cf. Africa Watch, 1990). Soon after independence Dr Banda acquired
the Times, which became the Daily Times, and increasingly published only
news favourable to the government. This tendency accelerated after the
Cabinet Crisis in September 1964, and became formalized in the Censorship
Act of 1968; an act that was to enable the banning of 840 books and
periodicals by 1973 (Africa Watch, 1990: 70). From the enactment of this Act
few independent or even church publications would dare to criticize the
government. As the Daily Times was the only daily, its marriage to the
weekend published Malawi News stable provided Malawi with a six-day
government monopoly newspaper service.
On its part the MBC was, from the start, a state broadcasting service,
merely transferring its allegiance from the colonial service, that had used it to
resist nationalist demands, to the self-governing regime of Dr Banda. The first
MBC African journalists had little choice but to follow the traditions set by
their colonial predecessors of loyalty to the government despite the

5 There was a small strictly African Bible College religious broadcasting

station.

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 6 The Society of Malawi Journal

independent BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) broadcasting models

that were proposed and despite the presence of trainers from the BBC and the
German broadcasting service DeutscheWelle. It was a government service
under the Department of Information and subject to ministerial control. The
formidable Aleke Banda was also the first Malawi director general of
broadcasting. This loyalty of staff was later to be entrenched in the Malawi
Broadcasting Act of 1991, giving the government power to appoint the
governing board; in effect giving the responsible director and minister an
editorial hand (cf. Africa Watch 1990).
The dilemma of the Malawi press after the onset of the one party
state, and the total domestication of the MBC and Malawi News in 1964, was
simply what to do with itself and how to expend its energy. Despite the total
media control by the government, many distinguished journalists fought to
extend the boundaries of news dissemination. Some, like Victor Ndovi, were
detained or exiled, often as topical examples to the others, for their reports.
Jonathan Kuntambila, Sandy Kuwali, Paul Akomenji, Francis Mhango and
Brown Mpinganjira were among those who suffered detention (Africa Watch,
1990). Others simply carried on disseminating what was permitted,
occasionally suffering the wrath of the government for supposed mistakes.
Malawi This Week illustrated an example of the slavishness expected of
journalists on September 23, 1967. It carried mostly a list of Banda and
Chakuamba speeches and Tembo's litany of activity. The tone went as
follows:

...Malawi has her own democracy and any professor who came
to Malawi with his own ideas would not be accepted, [Banda]
said. [Banda] had banned the Malawi Students Union in
America and their publication The Malawian was banned in
Malawi... passports belonging to the association leader Thandika
Mkandawire were withdrawn... the association, he said, was
subversive and was publishing material discrediting Malawi...

Between 1968 and 1977, the tenure of Albert Muwalo as Secretary

General of the MCP, journalists faced almost absolute censorship, resulting
from Muwalo and other MCP barons' own agendas compounding those of Dr
Banda (Muluzi et al, 1999: 127). And the brief period of relative
liberalization that followed Muwalo's arrest was to disappear in 1983,
following the killing of the three cabinet ministers and an MP in the so-called
Mwanza murders (Cf. Donge, 1995; Lwanda, 1996). Between 1983 and the
beginning of the transition to multi-party rule in 1991, John Tembo, as the
Minister of State in the President's Office, kept a tight check on the media
both electronic and print (Cf. Mtegha et al, 1994, Africa Watch, 1990). This
tight reign by John Tembo and his group was to contribute towards the
'elitification' of the media in that mostly those, mostly elites, who could be

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 7

trusted by the authorities to self-censor, could succeed in the Malawi media.

Despite this constrained atmosphere, a good number of distinguished
journalists, like their writer colleagues, did thrive and obtained regional and
international experience. For example: Alaudin Osman, who later started the
Financial Post went from being a Blantyre Print journalist to work on
regional papers in Botswana and Zimbabwe, including a stint on the Southern
African Economist. Felix Mponda, a former Daily Times journalist, worked
with Janet Karim on Woman Now before starting the New Express with Willie
Zingani. Zingani, a novelist, became one of Malawi's most respected
journalists, crowning his career by, in 1994, becoming the Malawi BBC
correspondent. Janet Karim, a Chancellor College graduate and member of
that college's Writers Group (Cf. Mphande, 1996), left the Daily Times to
start her own magazine, Woman Now and then, in 1993, the Independent
newspaper. Mike Kamwendo, a former Blantyre Print journalist, went on to
run his own ground breaking magazine Quest after stints on the The Daily
Times and Malawi News, before returning to the Malawi News in 1993.
Journalists survived by using contextual self-censorship, subterfuge,
the use of dense prose and by learning from their experiences. Slowly, as
editorial and other opportunities were afforded, they were exploited. Not
surprisingly, despite the dangers, journalism, in a poor country with few
white-collar options, still remained, and remains, a popular occupation, albeit
largely confined to those from elite backgrounds.
Towards the end of the 1980s, a number of factors helped to
establish a climate where journalists could think of establishing their own
papers. First, the process of glasnost/ond of the Cold War had necessitated, in
the Donors' minds, a revision of their criteria for aid to countries like Malawi,
and the 'aid for human rights discourse had began'. Second, a number of
visits by state dignitaries, including the Pope and Margaret Thatcher,
paradoxically helped to open Malawi temporarily to foreign journalists,
causing a frisson of excitement among Malawi journalists, and establishing
some tenuous and hazardous networks with outside journalists.6 Third, the
Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) had the paradoxical effect of
stimulating journalism. SAP required African governments to privatise some
state activities and make state bureaucracies and parastatals more
accountable. There was thus a need for basic financial journalism, hence the
early appearance of the Financial Observer and Financial Post. Fourth, the
growing popularity of football and music stimulated the need for media
coverage. In the absence of print and television media, cassettes for music
and videos for football had catered for this popularity. Those able to take
advantage of this need would, politics permitting, benefit. However, the

6 These dignitaries had been viewed in some quarters as being reactionary and
supportive of Banda's autocracy because of their perception of his version of
'a stable, God-fearing, peaceful, well-fed Malawi'.

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 8 The Society of Malawi Journal

politics did not permit and, initially, only Asian traders were able to exploit
this commercial need.7
The nature of the two newspapers, the Malawi News and Daily
Times, under the one-party era, established the future pattern of newspapers.
The main paper was in English, with Chewa and Tumbuka sections (until
Chewa became the national language). The editorial and copy content was
sycophantic, with most of the paper given over to the activities of the head of
state. As was revealed during the Mwanza Inquiry, the party secretary general
or Mr John Tembo, who controlled Blantyre Print, often read the proof copies
before newspapers were printed (Mtegha et al, 1994). The newspapers were
very much targeted at the reading and educated urban elite, particularly the
Daily Times. Although black owned, its advertisements, features and notices
were largely aimed at the European and Asian audience. There was thus a
structural dichotomy; with the front page (aimed at the black masses)
proclaiming Banda's successes and the economic pages and social notices
still controlled by the elite European community. If we regard the front page
as Dr Banda's attempts to keep the educated elite in check, then there was
certainly little for the ordinary Malawian, let alone the rural masses. Free,
largely propaganda broadsheets like Borna Lathu (our government) and later
vernacular pages in the newspapers, extolling government successes, catered
for the rural and urban anthu wamba (ordinary people, peasantry). There were
also government publications with largely propaganda agendas like This is
Malawi and Malawi International. During most of the Banda era then, the
print media was primarily for the urban and literate audience and the
broadcast and oral media (Land Rovers with loudspeakers used by
agricultural extension workers or the MCP propaganda departments) for the
rural and peri-urban audiences. The radio was, however often galvanized for
national propaganda activities during periods of crisis.
When towards the end of the 1980s journalist like AI Osman, Mike
Kamwendo and Janet Karim felt able to establish their own magazines and
newspapers, they were exploiting a number of factors: their inside knowledge
of the censorship laws in Malawi obtained from experience at Blantyre Print,
their standing as elite journalists who could be trusted not to cross the
Censorship line, their ability to obtain start up finance and a certain degree of
bravery. The magazines also exploited the growing popularity of soccer,
music and the increased interest in non-political external news features
(Quest, Sports Mirror) and the growing interest in gender issues (Woman
Now). In 1990, Chimombo's WASI (Writers' Advisory Service International)
also took advantage of the interest in literary issues and the popularity of
poetry in Malawi; the influence of the British Council, United States Agency

7 For the complicated role of Asians in Malawi's socio-economic discourse,

see Lwanda (forthcoming) Kwacha: the violence of money in Malawi's socio?
political discourse.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 9

for International Development and the French Cultural Centre in promoting

the 'arts' was helpful. As we have already mentioned, the Financial Observer
and Financial Post were exploiting the increased interest in economic and
financial news consequent upon the strictures and of SAP. The women's
magazines also exploited the ambiguous nature of the Chitukuko Cha Amai
m'Malawi (CCAM) national government sponsored women's movement's
urban elite, who espoused a contradictory mix of gender equality and rural
traditional values.
The only magazine, which survived from 1965 to 2001, is Moni
magazine, a Catholic owned Montfort Press publication that included
religious and international news, as well as sanitized news about Malawi.
Moni magazine was, in 1991, the first, perhaps unwittingly to challenge the
Censorship laws by questioning the national Dress Code then imposed on
women, by publishing an article by Dr Matembo Nzunda. Despite the
inevitable climb-down, the milk of dissent had been spilt.
But the moves towards an independent media were not based on
independent alternatives but on elite journalists and entrepreneurs of
independent mind exploiting existing networks without achieving an
independent voice and power; they still used the same presses and distribution
networks as the government media. And they were still dependent on
government goodwill and tolerance. Thus we note that from 1963 until the
beginning of the end of the 1980s the media in Malawi either belonged to the
government or the churches. The former was tightly controlled and censored
and the later restricted in content to avoid falling foul of the formal and
informal Censorship laws and rules. There was therefore no model of either a
free independent media ownership or a free environment in which journalists
could master the art of journalism and business.

1991 -1994
There was a natural expectation that the lifting of repression, exposing a deep
hunger for information and civic education, which would be filled by the
newspapers, would in turn expose a vibrant and healthy press. However, as
we suggest and later show, this hope was only, and initially, partially realized
(Lwanda, 1996; Chimombo & Chimombo, 1996). A number of factors led to
this limited establishment of an independent media in Malawi.
First. As soon as Banda conceded freedom of media expression,
journalists quickly became intoxicated with their own importance. This
intoxication arose from a number of causes: many journalists had been overt
and covert participants in the political process for multiparty-ism, and victory
against the mighty Dr Banda and the MCP was bound to be intoxicating. A
number, given the previous years of humiliation and repression, had scores to
settle with the Malawi Congress Party. "We defeated Banda," was a fairly
common refrain among some, and this led to a superior vanquisher's attitude
towards the MCP and politicians in general. Their active participation in

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 10 The Society of Malawi Journal

politics by many journalists blunted the objectivity of some of them and

helped to perpetuate their attachment to and later dependence on their former
political colleagues. This intoxicating access to developing power centres was
compounded by a general historical ignorance arising from the lack of and
access to archival historical sources, experience of running businesses, and the
legacy of being deprived of political science education at secondary and
tertiary levels during the one-party era. The animosity between exiles and
internal based journalists minimized the possibilities of networking with
external based colleagues who had, arguably, and by the Financial Observer's
reckoning, more historical insights into the history of the press suppression in
Malawi. This lack of networking was partly reflected as the, often, plagiarism
of foreign based writers' works during the transition, and also during the
subsequent political crises in the Muluzi administration.8 The paucity of an
adequate written historical knowledge base in a period of transition was a
crucial factor; oral sources were often used to fit political stances. In Malawi
historical and journalistic archives, particularly those referring to dissidents,
had been tightly controlled. In 1993, at the York Centre for Southern African
Studies Conference on the Malawi 1965 Cabinet Crisis, for example, it was
apparent that written archives on the Banda era came mostly from expatriate
sources. The Malawians contributions were mostly memories of the surviving
participants like Kanyama Chiume, Aleke Banda, Willie Chokani, Verah
Chirwa, David Rubadiri, Colin Cameron and others.9 The Malawi academics
at the conference had limited archival data of this period.
Second. Journalists were, particularly between 1992 and 1995,
divided by politics, a factor that many put above their loyalty to the wider and
national concerns. It could be argued, for example, that the team of Charles
Simango, Hardy Nyirenda and Dingi Chirwa at the Democrat were, before
late 1994, clearly pro-AFORD, and Akwete Sande and Din Balakasi for the
UDF. That these same journalists could later work for papers with different
political stances is a credit to their professionalism. However, this does not
detract from this argument because some of the factors that made them work
for other papers are addressed later. But the initial partisanship highlights the
wasted energy the journalists expended attacking each other between 1992
and 1994.
Third. As with the new blood politicians,10 journalists became
quickly dependent on the owners of the papers. This dependency reflected the
educational system in Malawi, which promoted particular models of writing
and publication. Many journalists had ambitions of working for newspapers

8 For example: the unauthorized use of Lwanda's Kamuzu Banda of Malawi

by the Enquirer in 1993 and the unauthorized use of Lwanda's Promises,
Power Politics & Poverty in 2001 by the People's Eye.
91 attended this conference.
10 Those entering politics for the first time after 1991.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 11
that were in elaborately written English, looked like the English Times or Sun,
and had an expense account to match.11 As these politicians could provide
funding for newspapers the dependency stuck.
Fourth. Despite, or in spite of their feeling of importance, the
Malawi journalists, as a body, had quickly forgotten how the stranglehold of
Dr Banda's media control had been loosened. It had been the internal and
external forces for change inspired by hunger, famifie, and repression that had
inspired change in the context of the East/West era of glasnost. Malawi ans
had exploited the subsequent pressure by donors for change.12 This had taken
the form of establishing alternative media networks via fax machines.13
Surprising then that the publishing phenomenon of the transitional period of
1991 - 1992, (the informal use of fax and photocopying machines), and its
success was not exploited by the journalists and new paper owners. This was
a phenomenon that had bypassed the government-controlled resources and
strictures, bypassing conventional telecommunications (Chirwa, 1995).
Although the government could control licences for fax machines, it could
not, for commercial and financial reasons stop their use. The same held for
computers, which journalists and would be publishers could use to desktop
prepare a newspaper issue. Printing was a limiting factor in a country where
presses belonged to the government, religious groups, Asians or European
owners. In the early transition some of these groups were not keen, for fear of
subsequent political reprisals that would affect commerce, to print material by
independent publishers.14 Even when funding was available, the Michiru Sun,
for example, found it difficult to publish because the MCP owned Blantyre
Print refused to print its "hot" issues. The alternative, Catholic owned
Montfort press could only print 15,000 runs. In the case of The Nation, once it
had established its premier status as a daily paper it still found its dependency
on the pro-MCP Blantyre Print presses an Achilles heel. Some have argued
that this dependency in a way shaped The Nation editorially by curbing the
pro-UDF excesses shown by its main competitor, The Monitor. But the early
realization by the Nation that it needed a printing press of its own for
commercial and editorial reasons is arguably the main reason for its success.
It also had the experience of the Aleke Banda family, now exercised via
Mbumba Achutan his daughter. And to crown this it had a number of
prominent and experienced journalists like Ken Lipenga, Alfred Ntonga and
Jonathan Kuntambila.
These shifting sands of printing dependency were demonstrated,
barely a year later in late 1994, when the Blantyre Print (BP & P) itself came

11 Personal interviews with a number of journalists at Lilongwe Hotel and

Mount Soche Hotel August 1994 to April 1995.
12 See Van Donge (1995), Lwanda (1996).
13 See Kalambyausi Chirwa
14 Personal communication from printer (unattributtable), 1995.

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 12 The Society of Malawi Journal

under threat from the new UDF government. BP & P was, under the one party
state, largely dependent on government business. After the elections:

BP & P, being owned by former head of State, now under

house arrest for murder allegations, is not being given
sufficient business by government. In addition, most UDF
functionaries who have had long business dealings with BP &
P are no longer interested to support Dr Banda's business,
"for obvious reasons"... And a look at BP & P shows that its
major client, as it is for many big companies in this country,
is government. And if one looks at who is in real business and
monies these days, it is the politicians with the UDF colour.
(Michiru Sun, 31/7/95).

Even this lesson did not result in a revision of the publishing tactics, and an
emulation of, for example, the direct simplicity but effectiveness of the
planning, presentation and prosecution of the Catholic Bishops' pastoral letter
in its simplicity, was not emulated. It is strange therefore to note that
journalists and new media owners were so enamoured with the 'perfect
model' of publishing that eschewing their early desktop models they quickly
made themselves dependent on the government owned Blantyre Print, the
same government they were usually lambasting. Tragically, the possibilities
of desktop publishing using simple computer software and printers was only
briefly exploited (particularly by the Computer Monitor in its early stages)
before being abandoned in favour of the aspired to models. Consequently
only the two newspapers from the colonial and Banda era, the Daily Times
and Malawi News, with the addition, for similar reasons, of the Nation and
the UDF News, survived.15 Simple four page newspapers could have been
aimed at the rural market, and also made new publishers more independent.
But the effect of the desire for perfect newspapers, the forgetting of lessons
learned during the transition, and of failing to explore desktop publishing
possibilities led to the new publishers and journalists making themselves
dependent on the new political patrons for money, the printers for printing
and, ultimately, any future governance that could control these systems.
Fifth. Active politicians started many of the papers. For example:
Aleke Banda founded the most successful post referendum paper The Nation;
Bakili Muluzi sponsored The Herald, which was edited by his associate and
later political adviser, Kalonga Stambuli; The Monitor, The UDF News, were
both pro-UDF, and benefited from funding from UDF sympathisers; the
Malawi Democrat was initially funded by and was pro-AFORD; the Daily

15 Simple four page newspapers that could be printed using desktop

computing technology and cheap A4 paper (Cf. Lwanda 1992 - 1993
samizdats) had been demonstrated.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 13
Times, Malawi News, and Guardian were funded by and were pro-MCP; The
Mirror was funded and owned by UDF strong man Brown Mpinganjira; The
Enquirer was owned by Lucius Chikuni and edited by Kalonga Stambuli,
both of the UDF; and so on. These owners, like former journalists Aleke
Banda, Lucius Chikuni, and Brown Mpinganjira, who were in the UDF
strategic team, were aware of the need for a future ruling party to consolidate
its control of the press. They were also aware of the role that independent
backers had performed in 1961 - 1963. In February 1996, Patrick Mwanza
observed:

Newspaper ownership is another threat. The question whether

politicians should own newspapers is a cause of disagreement
among publishers and journalists who try to be truly independent.
The newspapers are owned either by politicians or by people with
strong party ties. News coverage is partisan except for very few
publications, which have taken "intelligent" risks, and owners have
been criticised by party colleagues. Journalists working on these
papers complain that they have to practice self-censorship and do
not follow up stories that may affect publishers. They are afraid of
the possibility of dismissal. On these occasions journalists'
associations can do very little to protect their members... Also the
Post Master General, with Home Affairs Minister approval can
disconnect phones in the interest of public order.... (Nation, 7/2/96)

In the new dispensation, even established papers like the MCP's Malawi News
were not secure in periods when their owners were under politico-economic
threats. And in the quest for political mouth pieces even the AFORD
intellectuals sought 'to grab the Democrat" via a court order because, as the
then Publicity Secretary Matembo Nzunda, himself once a victim of Banda's
press laws, is alleged to have said, as reported in The Nation, in August 1995:

the party had initially set up the paper before the referendum
as a propaganda publication. He claimed his party had
acquired assets, which included vehicles, computers and other
accessories, saying the board of trustees whose chairman is
Frank Mayinga Mkandawire was appointed to run the paper
for AFORD.

At that time, the Democrat was proving a constant thorn in the flesh of the
UDF/AFORD coalition government, with scoop after scoop exposing various
alleged corrupt practices. The Democrat had broken the "K50,000 cheques
paid to UDF and AFORD MPs from the Presidential Poverty Alleviation
Fund" story. In The Nation of 23/6/95, Patrick Mwanza noted that the
government intended to introduce some curbs on the press.

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 14 The Society of Malawi Journal

Threats on media rear ugly head again.... the attitude

politicians give journalists leaves a lot to be desired. Just listen
to the way one Brown Mpinganjira, Minister of Information,
Broadcasting, Posts and Telecommunications, addresses
journalists. He refers to them... as "boys and girls"... Some are
even older than he is. And he goes on to limit the number of
questions that may be put to the President "who is tired from
the long travel and needs some rest". So we still believe in
putting words in someone's mouth. It reminds me of how ex
President Banda would tell the people that they were well
dressed, had enough food and slept in houses that did not leak
when it rained... MANA like in the old days still has its focus
on the bureaucrat and not the people, whose voice is seldom
heard. Nothing has really changed. And MBC? It apparently
has been held as a means of controlling public opinion... When
I talk of freedom of the press, I am not only talking about
freedom from government regulation, this freedom extends to
let the truth be heard, freedom of the reality of the man and
woman who are victims of the system to be exposed, to let
their story be told. Freedom of the press is not only freedom of
the ruling clique. No! (Nation 3/8/95).

Journalists were clearly aware of the pitfalls they were heading towards. That
they, nevertheless, proceeded in that direction and failed to find alternatives is
an indictment to their obsession with a western model of publishing; and with
the trust that the authorities would do the right thing.
Sixth. There was the problem of proximity between journalists and
their targets. This proximity, arising from their shared efforts in achieving
change, often between young journalists and older politicos facilitated the
patronage building exercises of the former and the recruiting of the age
factor; in Malawi respect for elders is a cultural norm. The period of
'comradeship' between young journalists and the bongololos16 and newly
enlightened ex-MCP types was much shorter than that seen in Zambia,
Zimbabwe or South Africa. While papers like The New Express, The Michiru
Sun, and The Independent, which were started by journalists had extra
problems of funding, the politician-owned papers were well funded, but
"censored by ownership" from the word go. This censorship was achieved by
the provision of funding and the proximity of journalists to politicians they
shared objectives with. Thus, even before the transition had come to its

16 As in late-comer: a term referring to the tail end of a concert dance

perfomance when the dancers circle the arena like a centipede (bongololo)
before exiting. This term was applied by John Tembo to those ex-MCP
politicians who were now (in 1992) espousing democracy.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 IS
formal end, the election of a new government, most of the journalists and
independent publishers had, as it were, sold their independence in exchange
for funding and printing facilities. After the advent of the new government, it
was difficult to criticize the same politicians who had fed them; those who did
inevitably lost their sources of funding. The failure on the part of journalists
was to strategise alternatives in the event of their patrons achieving power.
Seventh. Those journalists and printers who chose to remain
independent found their development arrested by a process of financial
deprivation and economic dis/inducements. This was achieved by their being
denied political, government, business and individual advertisements once
they too started attacking any of these targets. For example, if a journalist
attacked the MCP government, companies sympathetic to the MCP withdrew
their advertisements. This lesson and tactic was quickly picked up by the
pressure groups towards the end of 1993. In the immediate post electoral
phase after June 1994, the newspaper publishers who had become dependent
on the pressure groups found that their services were increasingly not
required. As funding for those papers that had served an activist role (on any
side) in the fight for multi-party rule declined after the elections, papers like
The Mirror, The Monitor, Guardian, Herald, Democrat, and even the UDF
News began to struggle; of these six only the second and last survived.
As private funding dried up, many publishers turned to the
government departments for advertisements. In the wake of the transition
there were many advertisements from the government and foreign agencies,
especially those promoting civil rights. However, given that there were over
twenty major papers and that the new government was entering a period of
patronage distribution, the new government quickly realized the advantages it
had over the already desperate publishers. For example, there were many
government press statements issued as adverts ("advertorials") between 1994
and 1996; most of these went to largely: The Daily Times, Malawi News, The
Nation and Monitor by virtue of their major status and or connectivity to
centres of power; the Weekly Chronicle, by virtue of its Lilongwe location,
and to a lesser extent: The Enquirer, The Mirror and the UDF News. These
are, apart from the Monitor, the papers that thrived. The Independent and The
Tribute owners complained most about being deprived of this income.17 The
Democrat also alleged, that "a government figure had poured money into one
of the daily papers" 18
The main problem was the small advertising base. The reading
population could not sustain the many papers at a time of rising newsprint
cost. It was the business angle of the controversy, which showed how the

17 Personal communications during the Vision 2020 conference with Janet

Karim and Akwete Sande (November 1997).
18 Personal communications Hardy Nyirenda and Dingi Chirwa, Lilongwe
Hotel (Octber - November 1994).

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 16 The Society of Malawi Journal

intra-elite economic struggles achieve primacy over politics once the battle
lines are drawn. The economics turned some hitherto pro-UDF papers against
the new regime. It was interesting, for example, to see the, supposedly pro
UDF, Tribute allege in May 1995:

Strangle them! ... the UDF government has dictated [that

government departments stop supporting other papers except]
Aleke Banda's The Nation, John Tembo's Daily Times, and
Clement Stambuli's Daily Monitor. [Why?] The directive
leaves reputable (sic) papers like The Tribute, the Democrat,
the Weekly Chronicle, Michiru Sun, the Mirror, Financial
Observer, The Enquirer, The Focus, UDF News and the
Independent numb and lifeless... these papers [employ 300
folk]. The average production cost of one newspaper is
K6.06... During the [Banda era] the Daily Times and Malawi
News monopolised advertising and it saddens us to see history
repeating itself... (The Tribute, 25/5/95).

The significance of the apparent attack on Stambuli came later, when it

emerged that he, Stambuli, had been co-opted into the ruling party and would
become the UDF candidate for a seat in Nkhota Kota. His former journalists
friends, struggling to maintain their newspapers, felt a grievance.
If the government really thought a journalist was worth his salt, in
terms of analyzing government policy, he or she, as had happened between
1961 and 1964, was offered a government post. The Malawi media thus lost
Henry Chirwa (now a diplomat), Clement Stambuli (now a cabinet minister),
Kalonga Stambuli (who became a presidential adviser), Al Osman (who
became a presidential adviser). Other distinguished journalists active between
1992 and 1996, and who have abandoned mainly journalistic careers include:
Akwete Sande (qx-UDF News, The Mirror and The Tribute and later to be the
New African correspondent in Malawi); his colleague Din Balakasi, now a
diplomat; Jonathan Kuntambila (Saturday Nation, MBC, MANA, The
Malawi News and The Daily Times,19 Ken Lipenga, the Chancellor College
Writers' Group member and English lecturer turned journalist who was later
to mould The Nation into Malawi's top paper before being co-opted into
government, now a cabinet minister; Edward Chitsulo and Grey Mang'anda,
who were later to found the Michiru Sun; Patrick Mwanza, now studying
abroad; Charles Simango and Hardy Nyirenda of the defunct Democrat;
Willie Zingani, now presidential adviser and press spokesman.
Effectively, then, financial and economic inducements proved that
the journalistic corps was not immune to the economics dynamics of the elite

19 Kuntambila, when I last spoke to him in July 2000, hoped to produce a

Malawi Advertiser, backed by commercial advertising.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 17

world they inhabited. In short, they were dependent appendages of the

government, politicians or business they sought to criticize, a fatal factor in a
developing poor country with pre-existing hegemonic tendencies. In the
discourse of 2001 we can claim that these journalist elites were ultimately
professionally undermined by their own economic interests; interests, which
in socio-economic perspective proved to be the same as those of the
prevailing business and governance elite.
Seventh. The new publishers failed to exploit the liberalized
transport services, preferring to use expensive conventional postal, air and
bus services. This made the exploitation and penetration of the rural market
extremely difficult. Even in a town like Mangochi, it was difficult to get a
copy of The Nation, in May 1995. The use of minibuses and other informal
services would have provided better penetration of the rural areas.
Eighth. Despite intense competition among the newspapers
themselves, there appeared to be, after the elections in 1994, collusion
between the print media and the MBC to delay the introduction of television
for fear of losing advertising revenue. The delayed introduction of Television
Malawi (TVM) provided time for its strategic design by Brown Mpinganjira,
who wanted a government-controlled organ. TVM emerged, in 1999, as a
television equivalent of the state controlled MBC. Had TVM been introduced
in the heady days of 1994, its journalists would have had more leeway in
editorial matters. The delay enabled the selection of staff, a significant
number from elite establishment families, and the establishment of a pro
government agenda
Ninth. There was an amazing degree of complacency shown by
writers and journalists after the introduction of multi-party rule in 1994. A
telling failure of the media in the Second Republic media corps has been, at a
time when they had the means, ability and donor support, their complete
failure, to campaign against the 1968 Censorship and Control of
Entertainment Act which is still in place. The Malawi Broadcasting Act,
which gives the government power to appoint the governing board, and in
effect the responsible minister an editorial hand, is also still in place. The
MCP, perhaps trying to outflank the opposition in 1994, promised an
Independent Broadcasting Authority. That promise, while coming from a
surprising direction, had, by 1996, not been put into place by the UDF,
despite the Minister of Information being Mpinganjira, a former journalist
(and detainee precisely because of this form of censorship). However, as soon
as the former journalist became Minister of Information he became a staunch
defender of the status quo, even introducing a government propaganda
newspaper The Weekly News. Mpinganjira was now a UDF strategist like
Tembo before him (Cf. Englund, 2002). Mpinganjira now seemed to value
the importance of orality to governance, as had Tembo and Banda before him.
Successful orality needs strict control of written and broadcast media. Thus,
in 2002, the Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act 1968 continued to

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 18 The Society of Malawi Journal

be law, long after 1994, despite the new constitution. Section 200 of the
new Malawi Constitution (16 May 1994), Saving of Laws in Existence,
states:
Except in so far as they are inconsistent with this constitution,
all Acts of parliament, common law and customary law in
force on the appointed day shall continue to have force of law,
as if they had been made in accordance with and in pursuance
of this constitution. (Malawi draft constitution, 1994).

George Padambo, the Chief Censoring Officer, in an attempt to reassure the

media and public, stated in late 1994:

"Our noble duty is to safeguard Malawian cultural values.

Each country has its own cultural identity and no alien culture
should be allowed to pervert ours in the name of democracy"
he says. Mr Padambo however, acknowledges that in the past
censorship went over the line, largely because of the political
climate at the time... In the new Malawi, according to
Padambo, this will never be the case, "we are here to be seen
to be doing our job constitutionally".... adding that already the
board had made proposals to the Ministry of Justice to amend
the Censorship and Entertainment control act so that it is in
line with the constitution." {Moni, September, 1994)

The use of tradition (read control of the rural constituency) is to be noted. It

was a constituency that the journalists had completely ignored. In 1996, the
Censorship Board was chaired by the Rev. Chande Mhone, himself a former
politician. Other members included, Rev. JC Chakanza, Dr J Kidy, Rev.
Chakwela, Chief Lukwa, Paramount Lundu, Mrs Kumwenda and Rev. CP
Kaswaya. This body confirmed the 'traditional', political and religious slant
that had been used under Banda to ensure censorship via 'moral and cultural
judgements'.
At any rate the claim that censorship protects Malawian culture is
rather contentious, but was little debated by the journalists. Most of Malawi
rural culture is part of daily life. The norms, values, dances and songs are
relative to daily life. The absolutes, as in rituals and rites, are already
established. How then does the censor claim to censor, using these traditional
norms, for the urbanite who aspires to global culture dominated by rapidly
changing global values and consumerism? It is the use of these quasi
traditional norms and, in effect, excuses by politicians, which lead to

20 See for example http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/world m.htm for an account

of some of the difficulties faced by the Malawi media since 1994.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 19

contradictions. Some church leaders and politicians regard urban kwasa

kwasa dancing and miniskirts as obscene, but a traditional dance with the
same steps, done by a poor woman wearing, threads barely covering her
dignity in a rural area less than twenty miles from the very urban area these
observers pontificate from, are contextualised as being somehow acceptable
and traditional. This thinking arises from using different criteria for people
living in the same environment but separated by poverty. The original
intention was to prevent rural people from coveting elite lifestyles. Malawi
journalists fell for the 'preventing tarnishing the image of our country' and
our 'cultural values' argument. They ignored that this was originally intended
to hide the grinding poverty in Malawi.
Another aspect of the censorship debate was the fact that in their
networking with foreign donor agencies, some local journalists enabled the
leverage by some of these agencies, which had a religious slant of a 'moral'
slant on the censorship debate.
Tenth. Journalists failed to address the orality/illiteracy issue by
providing simple and affordable reading materials in local languages. By not
providing these simple reading materials the new publishers and journalists
lost rural and anthu wamba allies. Malawi newspapers are still mainly in
English, with one or two pages of Chewa, Tumbuka, Lomwe or Yao. There
was a brief phase between the referendum and the elections when these
languages were strongly featured both in the print and broadcast media.
Today most news papers look like any English or American newspaper: front
page headlines, a few pages of local news, mostly politics, one or two pages
of world news, some esoteric syndicated features, the editorial and opinion
page, a Chewa or Tumbuka page, adverts, cartoons from UK or USA and
finally the sports back page. The classified sections typically show the urban
nature of the papers intended audience. Cartoons like Blondie, Dennis the
Menace etc., may have an universal appeal, but are unlikely to be aimed at the
rural areas. The choice of syndicated feature articles like "Sky's the limit for
woman astronomer" (The Nation 25/1/96), are so removed even from the
average munthu wamba wopeza bwino reality that they could be about Mars
for the rural folk. These newspaper, and now, some, television forms
demonstrate the elite aspirations and dynamics influencing journalists. These
limit and delay the introduction of a form of journalism appropriate to a
largely non-literate rural Malawi.
Interestingly, and in contrast, during the referendum and general
elections, the Malawi Congress Party established papers like Guardian
Today, which were aimed at the rural audience. This aim was carried forward
to appeal to the presumed conservative nature of the rural areas, who were
supposed to respect the MCP's divine right to nile. Thus, although in
retrospect it is laughable to recall the "MCP points to God! Multiparty - horns
of the devil" cartoons of the Guardian Today (see Vol.1 no. 7, may 1993),
these papers were made available to an audience that was hungry for any

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 20 The Society of Malawi Journal

reading material. In this vein, it is disappointing to note that, despite the

millions of kwacha poured by donors to consolidate freedom of expression
and a free media in Malawi, no one experimented with simple format
newspapers that did not depend on advertisements or commercial printing
presses. Nor has anyone, despite the success of the cassette industry,
experimented with audio-cassette newspapers. These could have been
distributed from the various small trader shops around the country (Lwanda,
unpubl. 1994).
Eleventh. There was a massive failure to learn from history. Many
of the young men who became journalists and were charged with informing
their compatriots were, often through no fault of their own, often ignorant of
crucial and relevant facts about Malawi's post-colonial history, a history that
had been hidden from them. But there were nevertheless, sufficient journalists
with enough knowledge of the past, a knowledge that was not utilised. The
School of Journalism established at the Polytechnic appears to have followed
the universal 'ideal' newspaper model appropriate to developed countries.
Twelfth. Malawi journalists failed to adapt to a changing
economy. As the once mushrooming press, which at one time in 1993 boasted
over thirty papers, became decimated by, among others, the effects of the
Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), economic recession and inflation,
which contributed rising transport, electricity and newsprint costs, the
journalists failed to craft alternatives. Instead, they resorted to price rises. As
in many areas of Malawi life, the SAP contributed to curtailing the very
freedom of information, which the journalists and citizens had fought for. The
price of The Nation newspaper, for example, rose from K3.50 in June 1995 to
K7.00 in April 1996, and that of the Chronicle, from K3.00, in May 1995 to
K4.50 in March 1996. These price rises are beyond the budget of most
Malawians. It is paradoxical that the very "tool of democratisation" and
economic liberalisation, the SAP, contributed to the muzzling of the press and
the resurgence of media autocracy. As the press became increasingly critical
of the government, it would have been churlish to expect the government to
facilitate its survival. In addition the government's taxes on advertising,
newsprint and print equipment and materials meant that most newspapers
became susceptible to the highest "funding bidder." Yet journalists largely
flowed with the tide even at a time when funds for alternative media initiative
developments were still available. As SAP bit, the journalists became more
dependent on donors and newspaper owners. However, the only sustained
donor funded project to date is the Malawi Media Women's Association
(MAMWA) Mangochi Community radio.
Thirteenth. The Malawi journalists, who had benefited from an
opening of the 'Malawi village' forgot this fact and became insular and
parochial. The agents who were to facilitate Malawi's absorption into the
world became bogged down in factionalism, economic self-preservation and
sensationalism. Journalists therefore took stances and editorial angles which

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 21

were influenced by the politics of their financiers or of the journalists

themselves. This occurs the world over, but in Malawi's case the sudden
freedom and intensity of the struggle produced a unique amount of licence.
The papers were likely to judge a personality or event on his or its political
angle, rather than on aspects of fact or morality. If a personality from the
other side was merely suspected of so and so, the partisan paper put it out as a
reliable story. The personality damaging and deconstruction culture of the
referendum and election period had been carried over and threatens to
become a permanent feature of the press. Politicking by journalists using
papers like the Malawiern, People 's Eye and National Agenda, for example,
made some journalist politicians rather than journalists. Unfortunately, as
politicians they were doubly viewed as legitimate targets by the government,
which reacted accordingly.
Fourteenth. Having ignored the rural audience, journalists also
effectively made themselves redundant from the point of view of their elite
audiences. It is not the elites who need well printed papers, they can buy
foreign magazines, watch satellite TV, listen to foreign radio on computers or
BBC FM radio. It is the rural people with no access to these who needed
newspapers they could afford. Now, with the advent of E-mail, satellite TV
and the popularity of video and DVD machines, Malawian journalists are
realising that in terms of informing their own opeza bwino, who like global
entertainment anyway, they may become irrelevant or marginal. They will
need to find ways of making the press more attractive, informative and
affordable to both rural and urban groups, particularly those not able to afford
the electronic media. And now they have to achieve all this with minimal
funding.
In this regard, even the other media successes of the multi-party
era mirror those of the 1960's (when the white establishment controlled the
media) and the 1980s (when elite Malawians started establishing magazines
and newspapers): those granted independent radio licences have all been
elites connected with the ruling party establishment; Al Osman, a former
presidential press adviser started Capital Radio and Oscar Thomson, started
FM 101. As in the late 1980s the people who benefited from the liberalization
of the media were establishment figures who would offer elite media services.
These elite stations, offering global fare, that would be little out of place in
New York or London, have little to do with the strengthening of the
indigenous media.
The other multi-party era success, the availability of the BBC FM
network, can be cynically viewed as another elite luxury: if the BBC which
has traditionally been heard on short-wave radio in Malawi eventually
abandons short-wave for FM, its rural Malawi audience will be left bereft.
Conclusion
This critique of the Malawi journalists and independent media's behaviour
between 1991 and 2001 may appear harsh but it is to be compared with the

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 22 The Society of Malawi Journal

vision and standards set by the journalists themselves. One Janet Karim
wrote, in 1993:

We are born to be independent... and will take an independent

view on all matters affecting Malawians in various sectors of
the community such as business, commerce, culture, religion,
education, health, agriculture and politics... [analysing]
without fear or favour... [using] a range of well versed
columnists who are ...specialists in their various fields... we
will not hesitate to assert that we are the people's watchdog...
{Independent, 5/4/93).

That people's watchdog is long gone, and Karim's voice is now heard via the
donors' medium. It is not unfair then to conclude that journalists failed to
analyse the reasons for their misery under Banda, the reasons for the absence
of an independent media in Banda's Malawi, the reasons for the involvement
of politicians in setting up newspapers and, in short, having done that to
strategise ways and means of achieving the sort of media they desired. Those
left in the dwindling independent media still trying to maintain their freedom
and independence, the Malawi press, will have to learn to forgo their
prejudices, fixed paradigms inherited from an educational system more suited
to developing countries, insularity and parochialism and make sustainable
rather than parasitical alliances with the rest of the world, donors, expatriates
and the Malawi Diaspora. Above all, they have to make alliances, not just
with the elites but with the vast potential audience among the ordinary folk,
anthu wamba. The potential of the electronic medium - the popularity,
irreverence and independence of the Malawi Diaspora's Nyasanet, and now
Malawitalk perhaps demonstrated the potential here - does not begin and end
with those who own telephones. The lesson of the samizdats of the 1992 -
1993 period still await exploitation. That exploitation may address the need
for an independent media that reaches the rural audience.
Surely, it is not all gloom and doom. Although a religious
institution, the Catholic Radio Maria seems to have given the MBC some
well-deserved competition. It is time for other players, like the Presbyterians,
with their vast rural audience, to follow this example.
And then there are the other independent media practitioners, the
musicians, whose orality reaches the rural areas. The success of cassette
music, and the elevated roles of some of its stars21 and messages show that it
is possible to communicate (and have cassette based newspapers and
magazines) via cassettes. However, like the print and radio journalists,

21 The cassette industry has made mega stars of people like Lucius Banda,
Everson Matafale, Alan Namoko, Mlaka Maliro, Billy Kaunda, Overton
Chimombo and others.

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 Paper Tigers: Media in Malawi, 1961 - 2001 23

musicians are dependent on Asian and other business people's recording and
distribution plants and resources; resources that can be limited. They too need
to find their own sustainable independent plants and networks.
However, given that most cultures and governances recognize
that, like alcohol, tobacco and Valium, music is good for the maintenance of
peace and calm, musicians will largely remain free of taxing restrictions.

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