Mutharika approves minor MBC policies: Merger of newsrooms

President Peter Mutharika has approved two policies for the state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as media analysts say the policies were too minor to reach the Head f State’s table.

According to MBC’s director general Aubrey Sumbuleta, Mutharika has approved that the radio and television newsrooms merge and the television should migrate to digital from analogue broadcasting.

Sumbuleta said this was “cause for excitement” because the two newsrooms worked in isolation of each other though under one organisation.

However, media analysts wonder whether such policies would not have been directed and effected from the director general’s office or with approval from the board.

“This is laughable, the whole president approving the merging of newsrooms. This is no difference from opening hospital guardian shelters,” remarked one on Facebook.

Most people in social media think Mutharika has an uphill task of turning MBC from a ruing DPP mouthpiece to a state broadcaster.

Many Malawians feel MBC, though run with tax payers money, is still biased towards the ruling party and hardly covers the opposition although now it has most resources it needed to balance news.

Malawi now boasts of a dozen television stations and radio stations giving Malawians a choice of which station to listen to.