The German government, through its Federal Development Minister Dirk Niebel, has issued the warning in a letter to Malawi’s Finance Minister Ken Kandodo. According to published reports, the German government is concerned with the recently endorsed repressive media law and human rights abuses.
The warning follows President Bingu wa Mutharika’s decision to assent to Section 46 amendment Bill, which reads: “If the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest, he may, by order published in the Gazette, prohibit the publication or importation of such publication.”
Before the amendment, the section gave absolute powers to the Minister to prohibit importation of seditious publications.
Commenting on the new Bill, Niebel said: “…..The amendments to the penal laws of Malawi's young democracy will suffer a severe setback." The German minister further said his government was becoming increasingly concerned with the adopted amendments to the Criminal Code in Malawi which includes criminalising same-sex liaisons.
As amended, Section 46 of the Penal Code is contrary to Section 36 of the Constitution which stipulates that "the press shall have the right to report and publish freely, within Malawi and abroad, and to be accorded the fullest possible facilities for access to public information." The German government pledged budgetary support of 5 Billion Malawi Kwacha (about US$33, 000, 000) towards Malawi's 2010-2011 financial year.
Representatives from the Malawi government, however, have expressed surprise over the German government’s decision to withhold aid to Malawi. Secretary to Treasury Joseph Mwanamveka said there was no formal communication on the issue.
In a related development, the United States government has reportedly expressed concern over Malawi’s governance issues and poor human rights record. This has reportedly prompted President Mutharika to order the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to write the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), pulling out of a multi-million dollar deal, days before the President was scheduled to travel to America to seal it.
Malawi was poised to receive grant money in excess of US$350 million to restructure the country’s energy infrastructure, a priority identified by the Mutharika government when it qualified for the MCC Compact.
The southern African country, one of the poorest in the world, marginally passed in the Governing Justly indicator on the last three MCC scorecards. The MCC Compact was scheduled to roll out within weeks after the signing ceremony in Washington DC.
Meanwhile, EU countries were still discussing the decision taken by German and US governments to freeze aid to Malawi.
The national assembly amended Section 46 of the Penal Code on 18 November 2010. The Bill was then taken to President Mutharika who assented to it on 28 January 2011. //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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