Malawi will in the not too distant future merge its state media houses Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Television Malawi. The government formed a task force last year to work out a merger of the national radio and sole television station. The task force has completed a report and recommended to government for the merger to take place shortly.
Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education Mike Kamwendo told Malawi News Agency (Mana) that the actual implementation of the merger recommendation would take place in the next three months. “Currently the issue about merging MBC and TVM is at an advanced stage and an advanced report has been compiled,” said Kamwendo.
“The report will soon be presented to Principal Secretaries and then Cabinet Ministers so that they make a decision on [it] before the actual implementation which is expected to take place within the next three months,” Mana quoted Kamwendo as saying.
According to the Mana report, the new organisation born out of the merger will adopt the name MBC and will be re-registered as a public broadcaster with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.
MBC has recently come under fire from civil society leaders and opposition political leaders who have condemned it for promoting hate-filled messages on its radio to advance the agenda of the ruling DPP. Television Malawi equally has been peddling the propaganda material of government against opposition elements sparking fears that the two institutions may instigate civil strife in the end.
Minister of Information and Civic Education has control powers over the two institutions. Chairperson of the parliamentary media committee Beston Lijenda could not comment on the merger development saying his committee would need to scrutinise the report. Lijenda, formerly an employee of MBC, said however that the national broadcaster needed a “new lease of life”.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment