Malawi Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 24, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Malawi Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7
MSI Malawi - 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.33
On April 5, 2012, Malawi lost its president, Bingu wa Mutharika, during his second term in office. About 12 months before his death, the ruling political party at the time, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had fired then-Vice President Joyce Banda and Second Vice President Khumbo Kachali amidst succession wrangles. Mutharika wanted his brother, Peter Mutharika, to succeed him, but Banda had shown interest in running for president. Banda was fired from her party position but she maintained her government position. Banda then teamed up with Kachali and other politicians and formed the People’s Party (PP). These developments meant that the country had a president from ruling party DPP and a vice president from opposition party PP.
During Mutharika’s last days in power, he showed dictatorial tendencies and subjected the country to bad governance and poor diplomacy. Malawi expelled United Kingdom Ambassador Fergus Cochrane-Dyet over an alleged leaked cable that described President Mutharika as “ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism.” Malawi then started losing its international donor partners. Its currency, the kwacha, was pegged unrealistically high against major currencies, despite devaluation calls from different stakeholders. Commodities, especially fuel, became scarce in the market. The economy nose-dived when the leadership championed a zero-deficit budget.
With Mutharika’s death, Banda ascended to the office of presidency, despite some resistance from DPP leaders. Tables switched, PP became the ruling party, and DPP became part of the opposition. Right from the beginning, Banda showed a different stance on most policy and governance issues—she led Parliament to repeal some repressive laws amended by the Mutharika regime and adopted a liberalized exchange rate policy. According to the National Statistical Office of Malawi, the inflation rate shot to a high of 25.5 percent by September 2012.
Like other industries, Malawi’s media sector was affected in a number of ways both during the economic crisis and in the ensuing recovery. The cost of doing business soared, advertising went down, jobs were lost, and media independence was compromised to a large extent. For the first time in a good number of years, labor strikes occurred at media outlets.
Malawi’s 2012 overall MSI score of 2.38 puts it in the “near sustainability” category, largely because the country has begun to meet aspects of most indicators. The change in government has meant some progress; however, panelists agreed that at this stage, it is too early to judge if the current government is genuinely dedicated to good governance and promoting free and independent media. The president’s commitment to media freedom has been questioned already in some instances, such as when she appointed a chief executive to the state broadcaster instead of leaving the task to the board of directors, as stipulated in the Communications Act of 1998 Section 92(1).
The Malawi study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
