Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MRA win ‘moving with the times’ award
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Malawi Revenue Authority were on Thursday night named winners of a ‘Moving with the Times’ Award for running the best government websites.
The award sought to reward government ministries and departments or parastatal organizations that have a strong presence on the internet through having websites that are functional.
Free Expression Institute loosely describe functional website as those that are well designed, well run, regularly updated and with relevant and useful information.
The Award was presented in two categories namely:
– The Ministries section, and
– The Quasi-government and parastatals
In Ministries categories only four ministries were found to have functional websites, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs one chosen the best.
The other ministries with functional websites are Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare and Ministry of Trade.
In the semi-government institutions category, the MRA named the best followed by the Reserve bank of Malawi and the Malawi Electoral Commission.
Speaking at the function Malawi Justice Minister Samuel Tembenu, who was guest of honour, took time to warn some people who take social media as a platform to insult government and other individuals.
“People should not think that their right to freedom of expression is a blank cheque that allows them to slander others or use profane or obscene language that has potential to cause unrest or civil strife,” he said
“Freedom of expression is very important in a democracy because it enables people to speak out freely, to seek access to information and to be able to hold, import or relay opinions,” he added.
Free Expression Institute is a duly registered independent civil society organization working for the promotion and enhancement of free expression in Malawi.
