MISA Malawi appears before parliamentary committee

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi Chapter, on 20 August 2009, appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Media and Communications. The meeting was attended by MISA-Malawi Director Aubrey Chikungwa, Advocacy Officer Sangwani Mwafulirwa, and Kelvin Sentala, MISA Malawi’s part-time legal counsel.

The meeting offered MISA-Malawi an opportunity to brief members of the committee on activities the institution is undertaking, including the Access to Information (ATI) campaign. The parliamentarians, most of whom are new in the National Assembly, were briefed on the current status of this campaign and the crucial role Parliament will play before the bill is passed. Currently, government is demanding that a policy on Access to Information be drafted before the bill can be tabled in Parliament. Discussions are underway to have this policy formulated.

Speaking after the meeting, Chikungwa was very optimistic the parliamentary committee would rally behind the ATI bill. “Some of the members are former media people. They are eager and willing to support the bill. What we need is the policy”, he said.

The Parliamentary Committee on Media and Communication comprises 18 MPs, some of whom are veteran broadcasters and linguists. The committee is headed by Kondwani Nankhumwa, MP for Mulanje Central Constituency. Nankhumwa has worked for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) for over ten years. The committee also held a series of similar meetings with representatives of media houses such as MBC and state-controlled Television Malawi (TVM).

Reagan Malumo
Programme Officer: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht St
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek
Namibia
Phone: +264 61 232 975
Fax: +264 61 248 016
Mobile: +264 81 311 2626
E mail: reagan@misa.org

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