Macra summons Zodiak over April 27 protests promo: Malawi police meets CSOs

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has summoned privately-owned  Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) for airing ad advert from the civil society organisations (CSOs) organising the April 27 nationwide protests to petition President Peter Mutharika and his administration on governance shortcomings.

Kazako :We will go to defend ourselves

The advert is inviting people to join the demonstrations which will be held in Karonga, Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba.

Macra director-general Godfrey Itaye summing  the radio station  as another doctored clip which calls on people to carry out destructive demonstrations.

Zodiak proprietor Gospel Kazako confirmed Macra has summoned the broadcaster this Friday.

“We stand accused of breaching some schedules of our license in airing that [CSOs] advert. So, we will be there to defend ourselves,” said Kazako.

But CSOs have said their street protests will be “peaceful” and that they have agreed to work with police to ensure the same.

Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) boss Timothy Mtambo, who is also  chairperson of the Human Rights Defenders Forum coordinating the protests,  said “evil minded people” were behind the doctored promotion against the CSOs message of peace.

The CSOs have requested the police to investigate the doctored clip and bring culprits to book.

Police also invited organisers of the protests to discuss about the promotion material.

One of the conveners of the demos, Gift Trapence, who is executive director of Centre for the Development of People (Cedep), said they were not taking a softer line on the issue and nothing will obstruct them from proceeding.

The CSOs want Cabinet ministers Goodal Gondwe (Finance, Economic Planning and Development) and Kondwani Nankhumwa (Local Government and Rural Development), to voluntarily step down or the President should fire them for their roles in the K4 billion financial transaction and an annulment of the entire arrangement. The two ministers have insisted they did nothing wrong.

Trapence said  there are other issues such as deterioration of basic services like blackouts, high rate of unemployment and the general decay of the state of governance.

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bibu
bibu
5 years ago

MACRA must first accuse /summon RADIO DPP 1, 2 AND TV DPP, for the programs BAD programs which they are airing like ‘sapita kawili’ ndiye akuipanga summon ZBS ngat ikulakwa bwanji?? dont be selfish aboma inu, mwawatuma a macra iyaaaa…..

Johane
Johane
5 years ago

MACRA proving once again that they are just overpaid time-wasters.. MBC is basically a DPP mouthpiece yet they summon Zodiak?!

santana
santana
5 years ago

Itaye, Itaye, Itaye!!! How many times have the CSOs gone into streets and achieve their goals? Why do you get worried with things which are cold feet? Do you expect that at the end of the demos Goodall and Nankhumwa will step down? Or do you expect that after the demos Mutharika will reshuffle his cabinet to replace the two ministers? Is it not the demo participants and organisers themselves who will turn into fools for not achieving their goal? I would even encourage DPP supporters to join the demos to add flavor to the demos for it to carry… Read more »

#DzukaniAmalawi
#DzukaniAmalawi
5 years ago
Reply to  santana

As painful as it may sound, sampan’s sentiments ring true there’s some facts we all can’t ignore. The demos won’t achieve anything tangible. DPP isn’t a listening party. Its leader is tone deaf, therefore will likely disregard the cries of the people especially, those that come from CSO-organused demos. In fact come the 28th April Peter Mutharika will castigate those that organised the demos as failures and losers. They will called “anthu osathokoza”.

Roll out ATI now
Roll out ATI now
5 years ago

Tell the MACRA bustards to play their games now as they only have a year. May 2019 we are chucking them out.

cadate ozipenta
cadate ozipenta
5 years ago

please start with MBC

psyuta
psyuta
5 years ago

Makape a NGO. mwadyaidya ndalama ndiye lero mukufuna mpawi akamayche ? Akaombeledweko. Mwauponda. Mupita nokha ku mseuko !!!

Kalipo
Kalipo
5 years ago
Reply to  psyuta

@psyuta
Uneneko kuti iwe supita. Fool. Ife tipite

Alamu Mwakalamba Pumani

You shitholes at Macra why don’t you summon shithole MBC? You are just wasting our taxes. One year left for all this to come to an end

Mkomavi
5 years ago

Mr. Itaye you are a thief and you are walking scot free so you want the Govt to forgive You for your long doings, a big thief.

Alfred Minjo
Alfred Minjo
5 years ago
Reply to  Mkomavi

Hahahahaha! Is it “long” or “wrong”? English in not our mother land I understand kkkkkkkk!

Mwitiwa
Mwitiwa
5 years ago
Reply to  Alfred Minjo

Even your English is not perfect. Correction: Are you trying to say that “English is not our mother tongue or language?” or “England is not our mother land?” Which is which, Mr. Minjo. Whatever! English is not our default language and measure of intelligence. Mwatola chitsotso mmaso mwa a Mkomavi pamene chipika chiri mmaso mwanu.

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