The newspaper, which mostly carries love and scandalous stories of politicians and local celebrities, was banned one year after its first edition because the paper was not registered with the National Archives of Malawi. Authorities from the National Archives had indicated to MISA Malawi in an interview that they had launched a campaign to flush out all publications that were not registered.

The National Archives used a 1958 piece of legislation - Printed Publications Act – to ban the Weekend Times. The Act states that all printed publications are required to register with the National Archives and at the same time submit a copy of their publication to the organization. The paper, however, continued circulating after the publishers, Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL), publishers of the Weekend Times, The Daily Times, Malawi News, The Sunday Times and Lifestyle Magazine, obtained an injunction against the ban.

Confirming the news with MISA Malawi, BNL General Manger Tikhala Chibwana said “…our reporters will now go about their duties without fear. We have been negotiating with government at various levels and I’m pleased to inform members of the public that the ban on the Weekend Times has finally been lifted.”

Chibwana said some of the ministries that were involved in the negotiation process included the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Justice. “The authorities have been asking us to have the injunction lifted. We negotiated with the Ministry of Justice to have the Weekend Times registered. An agreement has finally been reached and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between BNL and Ministry of Justice, of course the court bore witness to this process,” he said.
 
The ban on The Weekend Times sparked condemnation and debate from different sectors of society.  Commenting on this development, MISA Malawi’s National Director Aubrey Chikungwa said this was victory for the media in Malawi. “We earlier appealed to the government to reverse the decision to ban publication and circulation of The Weekend Times. Our findings showed that it was not only the Weekend Times which was not registered with the National Archives of Malawi, but numerous other publications. Banning the publication because it was not registered with the National Archives was severe and smacked of hypocrisy. The paper was banned almost a year after first issue was published.”

Chikungwa however, hailed government and BNL management for having reached an agreement to finally have the Weekend Times registered. “Dialogue is very crucial whenever disagreements arise. What government and BNL have done is for the good of the media in Malawi,” he said.

Media freedom is still under threat in Malawi following developments that continue to unfold. State President Bingu wa Mutharika recently said he would not hesitate to shut down newspapers that report negatively about his administration.

In a related development, the Malawi parliament in November 2010 amended Section 46 of the Penal Code which empowers a government minister to ban publications or importation of publications if the minister has reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to public interest.//End//
 
Reagan Malumo
Programme Specialist: 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
Official Email: reagan(@)misa.org
Private Email: reagan32002(@)yahoo.com

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