Mutharika asks reporters to avoid Malawi ‘impoverished’ clichés

Malawi President Peter Mutharika has echoed what Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa said that journalists should put an end to the “glorification” of poverty in the media.

Mutharika speaking a group of Malawian journalists in Sharma el Sheikh, Egypt on Thursday after signing the tripartite free trade area pact which enables free movement of goods and services between 26 different African countries said journalist should avoid writing “negative stories.”

The President said his administration has put in place a number of economic policies and strategies aimed at changing the country’s economic fortunes.

He said the media should avoid clichés that Malawi is aid infested country to attract.

“Who want to come to that country,” said Mutharika.

He cited one report in the international media titled “Lake Malawi infested with bilharzias” saying it was unpatriotic for a Malawian journalist to file that article.

Mutharika also faulted some online media for claiming Ebola had hit Malawi.

“Someone takes glory to say there is Ebola in Malawi, for whatever reason I don’t know,” said Mutharika.

“We must not demonise Malawi overseas,” the Malawi leader appealed to journalists, mostly from state media.

“We need to be very, very careful the way we present Malawi,” he added.

“When you write those articles, don’t try to please foreign employers by demonising Malawi. Don’t put adjectives that ‘Malawi a poor southern African nation’. Don’t write those things,” the Head of State appealed.

President Mutharika also said bad information about Malawi scares investors, saying negativity stories about Malawi being an Aids infested, poor Southern African country are not good for the country.

He further said investors are interested in rule of law of country and he was excited that Malawi has never persecuted any one and there were no political prisoners in the country’s overpopulated jails.

Mutharika said since his government came into power May , 2014 it has created an enabling environment which has led to a Chinese Telecommunication Firm  plans in rolling out  its operations and two Egyptian companies interested in  tobacco processing and manufacturing of cigarettes.

“My main goal is for Malawi to be self sufficient and independent in five years and improve the lives of Malawians if these companies come, the price of tobacco would go up, and if the telecommunication company comes, the GDP of Malawi will grow,” he explained.

Mutharika said he expects Malawi to experience economic boom in his first term which ends on 2019.

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