Times Media ‘raided’: Malawi rocked by newsroom capture scandal

Times Media Group — the broadcasting and print empire founded by Malawi’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda — has been left hollowed out, its most experienced journalists steadily absorbed into senior government roles under the Democratic Progressive Party administration.

What was once one of Malawi’s most formidable newsrooms is now, insiders say, a diminished institution, its credibility weakened and its editorial standards increasingly questioned by viewers and readers.

Times Media’s portfolio — Times Television, Times Radio, the Daily Times and Malawi News — long stood as a pillar of the country’s media landscape. Today, critics argue it is a shadow of its former self, drained of the talent that once defined its reporting.

The departures read like a roll‑call of the organisation’s most recognisable figures.

Brian Banda, the polished face of Times TV, is now Director General of the state‑run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Cathy Maulidi, a prominent reporter, left to become State House Press Officer.Wonder Msiska, Times TV Station Manager, has been posted to Qatar as Deputy Ambassador.His former Hot Current panellist Jonah Pankuku has been appointed Deputy Ambassador to Kuwait.

But sources say these appointments are not simply the result of government talent‑spotting.

According to insiders, the DPP systematically infiltrated Times Media during the 2025 election campaign, using the platform to amplify the party’s messaging.

The journalists now receiving diplomatic and state appointments, they allege, are being rewarded for their role in that period.

Most damaging is the claim that the editorial capture occurred with the knowledge — and tacit approval — of Times Media chief executive Leonard Chikadya.

He has not commented publicly.The fallout has been stark.

Audiences have become increasingly vocal about the decline in editorial standards, the blurring of political lines, and the erosion of trust in a media house that once set the benchmark for independent journalism.

Times Media, critics say, has been stripped bare — not by market forces or newsroom attrition, but by a political strategy that removed its strongest voices and left the institution weakened at its core.

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