{"id":22064,"date":"2022-05-04T19:27:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T19:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms"},"modified":"2022-05-04T19:49:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T19:49:48","slug":"nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms","title":{"rendered":"Nankhumwa dares Chakwera\u2019s Tonse on muzzling press freedoms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>As the world was commemorating World Pres Day on Tuesday May 3, 2022, Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Vice President for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa called on the Lazarus Chakwera\u2019s Tonse government to stop muzzling Press Freedoms in the country.<\/p>\n

Below is the full Nankhumwa\u2019s speech: \u201cToday, 3rd May, is World Press Freedom Day. I wish to congratulate all journalists in Malawi as they join their friends across the globe in commemorating this very important day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s theme, according to the United Nations, is \u201cJournalism Under Digital Siege\u201d. The theme is intended to highlight the multiple ways in which surveillance and digitally mediated attacks endanger journalists and journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, Malawi embraced democracy. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Republican Constitution under section 36. The access to information law also took effect in September 2020, which we all celebrated as a big step forward towards fully consolidating our democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, the media has played a crucial role in strengthening democracy in the country by providing the necessary information for citizens to make informed decisions. As the \u2018fourth estate\u2019, the media has performed exceptionally well in holding the executive arm of government accountable for its actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, according to the 2022 Freedom of the Press Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Malawi has slipped in ranking from 62 in 2021 to 80 in 2022 in terms of promoting freedom of the press and access to public information by journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not surprised by this huge fall in ranking because it appears that the Tonse Alliance government, under President Lazarus Chakwera, has brazenly gone full throttle in muzzling press freedom, including harassing and arresting journalists for merely doing their job.<\/p>\n

\u201cA case in point is the recent arrest of social media commentators, including a nurse, Chidawawa Maine, and Mr. Joshua Chisa Mbele, as well as that of Director of Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) Gregory Gondwe, on 5th April, 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs journalists commemorate this very important day, I would like to call upon President Chakwera and his government to resist the temptation of taking Malawi back to the one-party totalitarian practices where journalists were arbitrarily arrested and detained for many years for reporting the truth. Under that one-party oppressive regime of the late Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, journalists were forced to toe the party line and to always glorify the \u2018Ngwazi\u2019 as a demi-god.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Leader of Opposition in Parliament, I will not fold my hands and watch the Tonse Alliance government snuff away various freedoms that Malawians gallantly fought for in 1993 and 1994, including the freedom of expression. We shall, therefore, continue to push for the removal from our statutes archaic laws that impede media independence, and the safety of journalists in Malawi in conformity with our democratic dispensation\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the morning of Tuesday May 3, 2023 President Chakwera engaged journalists in what was described as having a breakfast with them at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. As the world was commemorating World Pres Day on Tuesday May 3, 2022, Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Vice President for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa called on the Lazarus Chakwera\u2019s Tonse government to stop muzzling Press Freedoms in the country. Below is the full Nankhumwa\u2019s speech: \u201cToday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,371,234],"class_list":["post-22064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nNankhumwa dares Chakwera\u2019s Tonse on muzzling press freedoms - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the world was commemorating World Pres Day on Tuesday May 3, 2022, Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Democratic ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nankhumwa dares Chakwera\u2019s Tonse on muzzling press freedoms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the world was commemorating World Pres Day on Tuesday May 3, 2022, Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Democratic ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-04T19:27:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-04T19:49:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6272d8be007df.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"934\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"775\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nankhumwa dares Chakwera\u2019s Tonse on muzzling press freedoms\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-04T19:27:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-04T19:49:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\"},\"wordCount\":506,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/img-6272d8be007df.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/nankhumwa-dares-chakweras-tonse-on-muzzling-press-freedoms\",\"name\":\"Nankhumwa dares Chakwera\u2019s Tonse on muzzling press freedoms - 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