Joy FM closure threat to Malawi press freedom,human rights

It is the day when government executed its long-held desire to muzzle
Joy FM and, through it, strangle the entire media after the High Court
lifted an earlier court injunction obtained in October that restrained
the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) to close Joy on
the basis of section 48 (7) of the Communications Act. 

The section states that, no broadcasting licence shall be issued to
any association, party, movement, organization, body or alliance which
is of a party-political nature.  

But neither Joy FM shareholders Atupele Properties Limited are
associations, parties, movements, organizations, bodies nor are they
alliances of a party-political nature. However, one thing is for sure
that the arbitrary closure of Joy FM and the timing and circumstances
of the closure, leaves no doubt in many minds that it was
politically-motivated.

The simple interpretation of section 48 (7) of the Communications Act
means that MACRA cannot award a broadcasting licence to UDF radio, MCP
radio or DPP radio or in the name of any other political party. 

Over time Joy FM has at all times exposed cases of corruption, fraud,
bad governance, police brutality, and the looming food shortage. Joy FM
has become a by-word for truth and a barometer for the state of
democracy in Malawi. 

Joy FM is the one radio station that has called government to account
for its policies. Malawians are better informed on many issues
affecting their status as citizens through Joy FM that otherwise would
not be made public anywhere else. 

The closure OF Joy FM is not only a threat to press freedom but a
blatant abuse of people's human rights and an infringement on their
right to know.  Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right
recognized in Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights.

A recent Afrobarometer research publication entitled Freedom of
Speech, Media Exposure, and the Defense of a Free Press in Africa
confirmed that radio has the widest reach in Africa than any medium of
mass communications. 

The Afrobarometer is produced collaboratively by social scientists from
various African countries and it is coordinated by the Institute for
Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), the Centre for Democratic
Development (CDD-Ghana), and Michigan State University (MSU).

Government's decision to take Joy FM off-air poses a major threat to
press freedom. It signals to other independent radio stations that
their survival depends on the good will of the government and that they
can only survive by being supportive of the government of the day. It
has been reported during the past week that the State House Press
Officer has telephoned and intimidated several owners of private radio
stations threatening that they are next on the closure list.

Press freedom and access to information feed into the wider development
objective of empowering people by giving people the information that
can help them gain control over their own lives. 

This empowerment supports participatory democracy by giving citizens
the capacity to engage in public debate and to hold governments and
others accountable. This flow of communication does not happen
automatically but has to be fostered by a free, pluralistic,
independent and professional media, which this government clearly seems
to stifle. Freedom of the media is essential and must not be blocked by
arbitrary closure of airwaves of any radio station.  

Citizen's freedom to criticize the government is as most important as
it is essential for a society to be called democratic. Malawi cannot be
called a democracy when government forces independent radio stations to
carry out only praises for the leadership whilst desisting from
critical analysis or carrying out of alternative and different
opinions. Joy FM and, indeed, all private radio stations must be able
to express multiple points of view freely without fear of interference
and retribution.

It would be a major threat to media independence if self-censorship
grips the independent radio stations. Censorship despite some contested
points, has the effect of creating an atmosphere of the fear of the
unknown and uncertainty that tends to breed rumour-mongering.

The other threat from the closing down of the people's radio station,
comes from alienating a section of society, that will consider this
action as a direct attack on their rights and an affront of their
sensibilities about what is decent and acceptable in Malawi in 2008
after surviving the dictatorship between 1964 and 1994.

After the democracy experience with Dr. Bakili Muluzi between 1994 and
2004, many can now ably relate their feelings about the benefits of a
free media and its relationship with human rights and connect with self
and national development. 

It is clear that where there is no guarantee of a free media, print or
electronic, the early casualty becomes truth which is closely followed
by men and women who dare speak out against abuses of power. Joy FM is
a significant persona in this role.

The radio station had not only come to be a source of news and reports
of the current state of affairs in Malawi, but it represents human
desire to weigh information circulating, sometimes as news and
increasingly in the recent past, as rumour.

Any legitimate government looks at the media and press freedom as an
integral part of governance. A free media helps government by among
others, creating an environment that enhances development by timely and
factual reporting, and serving as a medium for interaction between the
governed and governors. 

Often the media dispels uncertainty of direction government takes, but
above all, makes it imperative that a legitimate government be
predictable for the benefit of investment and growth.

Therefore, and in perspective, a free media promotes good governance by
exposing issues of maladministration in government, that is to say the
executive branch as prime movers of legislation, parliament as
lawmakers and the judiciary as the interpreter, administrator and
enforcer of the law. 

The government is such a huge machine that when it starts to turn, it
is not the easiest of jobs for a group of people known as cabinet
ministers and a president to keep control without the active
participation of a free media.

It is clear that the private media, including Joy FM, is society's most
trusted watchdog and as testimony of its effectiveness, government
ministers in collusion with State House, spend massive resources to
silence the radio so that the people should not be aware of what they
are doing with the taxes. They do not want to be questioned. All they
want is to rule and rule and rule, in any way they want and in total
disregard of the Constitution.

Let it also be stated that the aspirations of Malawians as they ushered
in multiparty democracy in 1993 were succinctly captured in the
Republican Constitution when freedom was underlined as a human right. 
Under Chapter IV of the Constitution, from sections 32 to 40, right to
freedom of association, freedom of conscience, religion, belief and
thought freedom of expression and freedom of the press, among others,
have been articulated: 

Quote: 32. (1). Every person shall have the right to freedom of
association, which shall include the freedom to form associations.

(2)  No person may be compelled to belong to an association. 

33. Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, belief and thought, and to academic freedom.

34. Every person shall have the right to freedom of opinion, including
the right to hold opinions without interference to hold, receive and
impart opinions.

35. Every person shall have the right to freedom of expression.

Freedom of the press  

36. 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.

37. Subject to any Act of Parliament, every person shall have the right
of access to all information held by the State or any of its organs at
any level of Government in so far as such information is required for
the exercise of his rights.

38. Every person shall have the right to assemble and demonstrate with others peacefully and unarmed.

39. (1) Every person shall have the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of Malawi.

(2)Every person shall have the right to leave the Republic and to return to it.

40. (1) Subject to this Constitution, every person shall have the right to:

to form, to join, to participate in the activities of, and to recruit members for, a political party;

to campaign for a political party or cause;

to participate in peaceful political activity intended to influence the composition and policies of the Government; and

freely to make political choices.

(2) The State shall provide funds so as to ensure that, during the life
of any Parliament, any political party which has secured more than one
tenth of the national vote in elections to Parliament has sufficient
funds to continue to represent its constituency. (Unquote)

It should be said that the political freedoms enumerated hereinabove
under Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi have
further been enforced by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, which states that: 

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to
seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.  

The closure of Joy FM and the general threat to the private media in
the run-up to the May 19, 2009 General Elections is an attempt to rig
the elections and deny the people of Malawi the opportunity to listen
to multiple voices. A democratic government has no business to put
controls against freedom of speech.