Written in 2001

 On 13 October 1989, an exiled Malawian journalist Mkwapatira Mhango and about nine members of his family were firebombed in Zambia by agents of the then MCP government. Evidently, like a hunter drunk with the blood of his hunt, the late President Banda would boast about ?what had actually happened? like in the case of the 1981 abduction of the Chirwa family or the1983 Thambani murders. So he did with the death of Mkwapatira Mhango. Who was Mkwapatira and what meaning does his death have for Malawians today?

A journalist whose interest was human rights, Mkwapatira actively and consistently reported of the gross human rights abuses by the MCP government. For some with short memory, people were being detained without charge or on trumped up charges. Educated people were a threat to Dr. Banda and so he did set up a spy network, through which even some academics betrayed their own, like in the case of Jack Mapanje. Banda?s traditional court system, enabled him to get rid of many political opponents and threats.

Many Jehovah?s Witnesses were beaten up and had their property destroyed, some lost lives and others had to go into exile to Mozambique and Zambia. As a nine year old boy in Ntokotha Village, TA Nchilamwera, I witnessed the seriousness of mob justice when the village?s only tinsmith and a very good drunkard, Angwazi was beaten up to death by the local Youth League members because he took on the name of the Ngwazi, though in reality, I would suppose, when Dr. Banda came in 1958, this man was already known as Angwazi.

Mkwapatira exposed many of these issues to the outside world through his contributions to reputable media structures like the BBC, which did annoy the MCP hegemony. Though he did belong to the Malawi Freedom Movement, it was his journalism of exposition that created many enemies within the MCP government for Mkwapatira.

The impact of Mkwapatira?s pen were strongly felt by the dictatorship to an extent, around September 1989, Dr. Banda offered public denials against foreign media reports that the Chitukuko Cha Amayi Mmalawi (CCAM) was using and misusing public resources and that John Tembo was vying for succeeding the grandfather. Mkwapatira contributed to Africa Watch and considering the scarcity of detailed information on Malawi at that time, his well-researched expositions were always being used as sources by many foreign media especially the Channel Africa Chinyanja service, which many rural Malawians tuned in to in the evenings to listen to criticisms of their government.

Mkwapatira?s mission in life was the freedom of journalists the world over. In what could be probably one of his last contributions to the Africa Watch, he co-wrote an article to issue 195 of The New Internationalist of May 1989, under the international media column, titled, No Return Ticket: Journalists at Risk. In this article, Mkwapatira and Daniel Nelson observed that white and western journalists covering African wars or famine are considered very brave and daring. They however note that, Third World journalists are the real heroes, noting ?the people we rarely hear about are the journalists who take real risks, day in day out ? without the security of a foreign passport and a return ticket.?

These Third World journalists ?work in repressive regimes and are harassed, beaten or imprisoned time and again, but carry on writing,? note Mkwapatira and Nelson, and further observe, ?such perseverance can claim an impossibly high toll.? They they list down cases from Africa, Latin America and Asia in which journalists suffered some form of ?silencing.?

Mkwapatira is long dead today but his example does have a place in Malawian democracy today. Mkwapatira fought for a society in which Malawian journalists would be free to ask what kind of salary and business would enable a politician to accumulate worth in the region of 15 billion Kwacha within a period of ten years. Mkwapatira fought for a Malawi in which journalists would want to know who actually ordered the beating up of Nyirenda at a UDF convention. Mkwapatira fought for a Malawi in which journalists would be free demand files with regard to the sale of David Whitehead to Mapeto Wholesalers. In which journalists would demand to understand why the UDF government was desperate to privatise ADMARC in the heat of food insecurity in the country.

In which Malawian journalists would demand to understand who actually brought in weapons in the 2003 MCP convention. In which journalists would seek to understand how Khwauli Msiska, intelligent and bright as he is, ended up introducing the controversial Third Term bill. Mkwapatira fought for journalism ideals in which Radio MIJ, whose community is Blantyre should publish news about UDF, elections, the President or political court cases because these are located within its community.

Mkwapatira fought for journalism ideals in which journalists would be free to conduct parallel investigations with the police regarding deaths of Evison Matafale or Sheikh Bughdad, who believed Muluzi killed Attati Mpakati. In which journalists would be free to investigate how government cars were auctioned only for high ranking officials to stop the auction after seeling themselves two or three year old Camrys for 15,000 Kwacha. In which journalists would be free to question leadership, membership and activities of the National Intelligence Bureau. In which journalists are free to question how one community radio is being owned and run by foreigners from a country that is slaughtering black people because they are black.

It is a long litany of Mkwapatira?s wishes and ideals. Years into our nascent democracy, Malawian journalists face numerous socio-political challenges from firing, beatings, sexual harassment, unfair labour practices, tribalism and even deaths threats. It is an insult to the memory of Mkwapatira that no media scholarship, structure, contest or grant has been named after him. It would be a national honour to the man whose dedication was freedom for all those journalists without a return ticket!

Appeared in The Malawi News in October, 2008

In this second of the series on broadcast and free speech in Malawi, Linje Manyozo monologues on the question of the public-ness of Malawi?s public service broadcasters, MBC and TVM.

The ideal public service broadcaster that I am proposing for Malawi will promote deliberative dialogue and thereby, empower the country?s citizens to become more fully human by becoming actively involved in the governance and development initiatives. Such a public service broadcaster will become a knowledge centre, which will offer citizens an opportunity to intervene in reconstructing their world. The ideal public broadcaster will become an instrument of socio-cultural network, linking Malawians from all walks of life, across trajectories of ideology, religion, gender or ethnicity. The transformation of the already extant state broadcaster into the new and more democratic public broadcaster will largely depend on implementing four proposals, namely, combining TVM and MBC, promoting development broadcasting philosophy, depoliticising MBC recruitment and decentralizing the broadcaster.

1.             Combining TVM and MBC; and introducing an Internet news service

Almost all the practical and ideal models of public broadcasting are, first construed on the notion of decentralized, regional and rural broadcasting; and secondly, are based on combining radio and television services. The mother of all public broadcasters, the BBC, whose model has been adopted the world over, views radio and television broadcasting complimentarily. Apart from being a cost-effective strategy, combined television and radio broadcasting ensures that radio and television broadcasters align themselves to the same ethical principles of public broadcasting.

If radio and television are sharing resources, ethics, values and broadcasting principles, it doesn?t make sense to introduce television as a separate corporation. The irony is that most MBC broadcast journalists had been sent for further training in television production in preparation for the introduction of MBC-TV. Politicising ?development? resulted in ?a few individuals? deciding to separate the two faces of the same public broadcaster coin, so as, probably speaking, to be seen as introducing ?new? development in Malawi. The station colours, amazingly, were all yellow, like green became the official colour of MBC in the MCP days!

TVM should come under MBC, as it was supposed to have been the case. Thus we will have MBC Radios and MBC TV, managed under one Director General and then have the same Channel Directors for Radio and Television. The point is, there was never any non-political justification for the separation of MBC from TVM! The combined Public Broadcaster will then have a working website (MBC Online) to provide audiences with online news, RSS feeds and podcasts of interesting and popular content. The MBC Online will strengthen the International Broadcasting Services that MBC already offers, by bringing radio to audiences beyond the geographical borders. It is high time the real MBC started live streaming of broadcasts.

2.             Promoting the development broadcasting philosophy

Development broadcasting centres on community ownership of communication programmes and systems, in which broadcasting tools, such as radio for instance, are employed to facilitate the participatory engagement processes of generating, sharing and utilising local knowledge towards the creation of sustainable livelihoods, communities and environment. The challenge for a restructured MBC is to offer its broadcasters, an opportunity to use radio and television to facilitate the participation of Malawian citizens in national development policy formulation and implementation.

Citizen participation entails the ability of individuals and communities to democratically conduct deliberative and reflective dialogues on critical issues affecting their livelihoods as well as take appropriate action to address the same. MBC (Radio, TV and Online) should build on lessons learned from the Kanthu Nkhama Project and then begin to emphasize more critical and public journalism. The objective is to have an MBC, which is able to ask questions and conscientize people to see the world from different points of view, thereby promoting the fostering of multiplicity of voices, heteroglosia to use Bakhtin?s term.

3.             Depoliticizing MBC recruitment

The first Director General of MBC was Aleke Banda, who was an active member of the MCP before, during and after his appointment. Since then, the Director Generalship has become a political position. Sam Mpasu installed his personal assistant, the late Pamkuku as DG in the late 1990s. As a result, Malawi?s ?public service broadcasting? is too centralised and politicised, with blatant bias of programming favouring the ruling political parties, who unfortunately, cannot guarantee the independence, professionalism and the public-ness of the MBC.

Appointments to MBC top positions should be the responsibility the Media and Communications Committee of the Parliament, who should develop job descriptions, recruit and even set high standards of practices for the prospective recruitees. This Parliamentary Committee should even screen people that the Minister of Information recommends to be on the MBC Board. Its no use having the board full of people that have no idea of what public service broadcasting is all about. Such a recruitment process should also involve representatives from the civil society, especially NAMISA-Malawi Chapter. These representatives should also be part of a Broadcasting Complaints Commission, to operate under MACRA, who will deal with public complaints against any irresponsibility towards programming and broadcasting from any of Malawi?s broadcasters.

4. Decentralising MBC structures

I am proposing the decentralisation of MBC, along the models that are currently operative in Africa and the world over, where, public broadcasters comprise smaller and local stations that serve diverse cultural, economic and ethnic interests.  For instance, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is a national public service broadcaster comprising radio and television channels. SABC observes that its national radio network comprises eighteen radio stations: three are commercial; fifteen provide indigenous language services in the eleven official languages of South Africa.

The MBC regional stations initiative

MBC already has two regional centres in the country, in Lilongwe and Mzuzu. The regional centres however do not function as autonomous stations, since they do not have their own frequencies. These centres/stations act as tools for collecting broadcasting material for the Blantyre-based MBC Radio.

The Corporation should establish a Rural Radio Service (RRS) with the result that, the public radio service shall have two networks, MBC Radio National comprising Radios One and Two FM, and MBC Rural Radio Service. The RRS will be supervised by a Director, who will become MBC?s fifth Directorate (alongside corporate affairs, engineering, news and current affairs, and directorate of programmes. Under the Rural Radio Service, the public broadcaster will have Station Managers (SMs), who should come from the respective regions and understand cultural, linguistic, economic and political background of the areas.

MBC will establish eight Regional Stations across the country. MBC North, MBC Dwangwa, MBC Likoma, MBC Central, MBC Kirk Range, MBC Lakeshore, MBC Highlands, and MBC Lower Shire.

Local stations within the MBC Rural Radio Service

The selection of these regions is based on dominant linguistic, economic and cultural considerations and existing MBC broadcasting structures already in place within those regions. The location of Malawi?s regional stations should be carefully planned to reflect their ideological neutrality. On financial sustainability of the radio stations, the government should provide funds for the capital investment in transmitters and equipment, but that it should not interfere with its operations. These stations should have some fundraising mechanisms to pay for some volunteers as well as maintenance of portable field recording equipment.

MBC Rural programming

Under the MBC Rural Radio Service, local stations will be mandated to broadcast a minimum of forty percent of their programmes in indigenous chiChewa language, which is the national language. The other sixty percent will be in local languages, so as to address the marginalisation of ethnic languages by the national broadcasters. Regional MBC Radios will provide a minimum of fifty percent of airtime to community-produced programmes by the communities themselves.

Afterthoughts

My proposals should not be seen as valid truths, because in reality, MBC would need to conduct a study to see the viability of the regional stations. I am just opening up a discussion with many Malawians, who like, myself, are fed up with the politicisation of the Corporation. TVM must first and foremost, be brought back within the MBC; Corporation recruitment become a public process; and development broadcasting be emphasized as an operational philosophy. Importantly Malawi will need enabling regulation to mandate all these changes. It is a long and windy road. Dusty and full of potholes.

Kwa mnzanga wa kuubwana Phillip Michael Banda

Malingaliro a chiyembekezo cha pa unyamata wathu

Ndati ndikukumbutse za chiyembekezochi

Chiyembekezo cha anyamata a kwa N'chilamwera 

Munthu wokwanira ndi amene amakhutira ndi unansi wabwino umene anthufe tiyenera kukhala nawo ndi anthu anzathu, zilibe kanthu tisiyane makhalidwe, mtundu, chikhulupiriro kaya chiyankhulo. Munthu okwanira amachita chidwi ndi chisangalalo ndi mtendere wa mumtima. Munthu okwanira adzikhala wamtendere ndi onse amene akukhala nawo.

Munthu okwanira amayenda akucheuka kunja; ndiwodekha komanso sapupuluma pofuna kulemera mwamsanga; popeza amadzindikira kuti maziko akukoma kwa mtima wamunthu sanagone pa kuchuluka kwa chuma chimene ali nazo.

Akakhala wamkazi, munthu okwanira amakhala wachifundo chenicheni; wansagala  ndi alendo kayanso awo amene salemekezedwa pamaso pa anthu ambiri. Mkazi wokwanira ngwachifundo, sapupuluma poyankhula, ndipo akayankhula, mawu ake amakoma powamva, chifukwa amakhala alingaliridwa bwino.

Mkazi wokwanira sasirira zinthu zimene banja lake silingakwanitse, poti amadziwa kuti kupata nkosiyana; Sanyinyirika ndi kuchepekedwa kumene kunalipo dzulo, poti amadziwa kuti mmawa ndi tsiku lina.

Mkazi okwanira amazindikira kuti chikondi cheni-cheni chimachokera pansi pa mtima. Chikondi chenicheni chilibe chinyengo, ndi chansangala, chimapirira ndipo sichisunga mangawa kukhosi. Chimakhululuka ngakhale wolakwayo sanapepese popeza chimadziwa kuti munthu amasoweka ungwiro. Chikondi chenicheni chimasangalatsidwa ndi munthu wa mkati, mkati mwa malaya.

Mkazi wokwanira amadziwa kuti chikondi chenicheni ndi tsimikizo lokhazikika limene munthu amakhala nalo mumtima kuti bwenzi lake lidzamchitira chirichonse opanda kukayikira kapena kuchondereredwa, ngati kutafunika kutero. Chikondi chenicheni chimadziwa kudikira ngakhale chikhulupiriro chitachepa.

Tikhale ndichikhulupiriro kuti tsiku lina tidzachipeza chikondi chenicheni kchokera kwa mkazi wokwanira. Pamene tikufuna-funa chikondi chenicheni, tisamwe zoledzeretsa poopera kuti tikakumana nacho, maso athu angakayikire nkuyamba kuchinyozetsa. Kupeza chikondi cheni-cheni n'kupeza chipulumutso. 

Akasekerera mkazi okwanira, nseko yake imayatsa moto wowopsya mumzimu mwa mwamuna amene akusekereredwayo, ndipo ngati anapysa mtima, amakhululuka. Mkazi wokwanira ngwokola mmawa, ngwokongola masana, ngwokongolanso madzulo.

Ndili ndi chikhulupiriro kuti tikadikira, tidzamupedza mkazi wokwanira. Ndili n'chikhulupiriro kuti mwina takomana naye kale mkazi okwanira, koma chifukwa chonyozetsa, tamupitirira. Sindifuna kumwa zoledzeretsa pamene ndikufuna-funa mkazi okwanira, poopa kuti ubongo wanga ungasokonezeke.  

Ndikufuna ine n'chikhulupiriro kuti ndikamupeza mkazi okwanira, ndikhutire ndikupatsidwa kwanga. Podzindikira kuti mtima suchedwa kunyengedwa, ndikufuna chikhulupiriro kuti ndikampeza mkazi okwanira, ndisamupitirire. Ambuye, khadzikitsani mtima wanga pansi, powona kuchuluka kwa zokoma, fooketsani maso anga kuti asakomedwe ndi zinthu zambiri- kuti achite chidwi nkudzindikira mkazi okwanira yekha basi.

Ndikampeza mkazi okwanira, ndidzaufunsa mtima wanga ngati wakhutiradi kuti wafika. Ndikamupeza, ndimungwira dzanja nkumupempha pempho limene lakhala mumtima mwanga kwanthawi yaitali.

Ndamufuna-funa mkazi okwanira kwa nthawi yaitali, chonde, Ambuye, limbitsani maso anga, kuti asawodzere ngati kutafunika kuti kudikira kwanga kupitirire nthawi yausiku. Ndifuna ndikhale maso, kuti pamene afike namwali okwanira, ndimdzindikire mwamsanga, komanso ndimulimbitse mtima kuti ndapirira nkumudikira iyeyo.

Ndizakhutira ndikamupeza mkazi okwanira. Sidzidzakayika, ndipo ngati iyeyo adzakayikiya ndidzamlimbitsa mtima, nkumutsimikidzira kuti iyeyo ndi mkazi wakumaloto kwanga. Ndikufuna chikhulupiriro Ambuye, kuti pamnthawi imene ndili pasitimayi, mtima wanga usasilire izo ikumaona pazenela, chifukwa zidzakhala zinthu zamunjira, zinthu zopanda ntchito.

Ndamufuna mkazi okwanira. Ngati ndamupeza, chonde Ambuye, ndikufuna chikhulupiriro champhamvu. Patseni Chiyembekezo?.Ndikufuna ine n?Chiyembekezo, Chiyembekezo cha Mnyamata.

Excerpt from Mkati Mwa Malaya, Linje Manyozo, 2001