British High Commissioner warns Malawi Govt against stifling media freedom
The British High Commissioner to Malawi Fiona Ritchie says the government should avoid any attempts to stifle media freedom and independence in the country.
Ritchie talked tough against press freedom this morning in Lilongwe during a breakfast meeting with the Association of Environmental Journalists (AEJ) ahead of the World Press Freedom Day commemorations on May 3.
“We oppose all attempts by any state to restrict press freedom, silence debate, abuse journalists, or spread misinformation – whether online or offline,” said the British envoy.
“Across the last 5 years, the UK has spent over £600 million (over K600 billion) in ODA to support media freedom globally. This we do because we believe that Independent media is essential to a functioning society” she added.
This comes as one journalist Gregory Gondwe fled the country a few months ago because of what he called threats from the Malawi Defense Force over stories he published on his online publication over MDF contracts with corruption king pin Zunneth Sattar.
Government said Gondwe was not being sought by the state.
He is now back from Tanzania where he fled to.
Ritchie therefore commended AEJ for leading efforts of forest conservation through the Forestry Accountability Journalism Initiative in Malawi(FAJIM) in partnership with the UKAID and USAID funded Modern Cooking for Health Forestry(MCHF).
AEJ President Mathews Malata hailed the British envoy for interacting with the green team and highlighted the frustation in getting information from the government despite the operationalisation of the Access to Information(ATI) law.
According to Malata, it is also frustrating to see that many forestry issues exposed in the media remain unresolved by law enforcement agencies and the courts.
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