MEDIA ETHICS: A Call to Responsible Journalism

For the first three decades following independence from Britain in 1964, the governance of Malawi was a political dictatorship under President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda and his Malawi Congress Party (MCP). The country adopted a multiparty constitution in 1993 through a national referendum. Bakili Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF) emerged winners of the 1994 general elections and formed a government. The UDF also won the 1999 and 2004 elections. In a multiparty democracy, the right to freedom of expression should ideally empower journalists to provide in-depth and balanced reporting on issues that affect the disadvantaged populace, the majority of which lives in abject poverty. The media's attempts at providing accurate and balanced information have, however, intensified tensions with the ruling politburo. Building on the case of four journalists who were dismissed from the country's public broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Radio, this paper draws from Gramscian concepts of ideology and hegemony to critique the practice of political journalism in Malawi's broadcasting media. It seeks to explore how oppressive political regimes stifle media freedom and how all this leads to the emergence of popular culture as a form of alternative media.

Political history of Malawi can essentially be categorised in three phases:

2009

This part of the paper analyses the content that the media carried during the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections period. While the assessment of media performance was largely based on ethical conduct as provided for in the electoral laws and the Malawi Media Code of Conduct which provides guidelines in various areas of ethical conduct, the assessment of media output or content was based on a number of thematic areas. The assessment looks at some of the texts not as individual pieces of information for analysis but as messages experienced by listeners; viewers and readers (i.e. watched, read and listened to by audiences – the electorate as were being communicated).

This paper is a critical review of the role and performance of the media in the 2004 Malawi Parliamentary and Presidential Elections. The paper argues that, although not perfect, the professional and legal environment in Malawi is conducive enough for the media to develop and work professionally. It notes that, although the print media sector has experienced a downward development trend since 1994, the broadcasting sector has expanded and media-related training has flourished since 1994. Against this background, the paper goes on to argue that the dismal performance of the media in general, and public broadcasters, MBC and TVM in particular, was the result of a lack of attitude change and political partisanship amongst media managers, and a lack of political will amongst the politicians themselves. Politicians seem to be interested in media professionalism only during elections. The paper makes several recommendations to Malawian journalists to improve their performance.

2015

This study investigated the political role of the Weekend Nation newspaper in the democratisation of Malawi between 2002 and 2012 within the context of its foundational and ownership structures by a politician. Bearing in mind that the newspaper was founded by a politician belonging to the first democratically elected ruling party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), this research sought to examine the impact of media ownership on the political role of the Weekend Nation's journalistic practices in Malawi's democratisation. Between 2002 and 2012, Malawi was governed by three presidents-Bakili Muluzi of the UDF from 1994 to 2004, Bingu wa Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from 2004 to 2012, and Joyce Banda of the People's Party (PP) from 2012 to 2014-all of whom were hostile to the Weekend Nation. Taking into cognisance the ownership of the Weekend Nation by a politician, the critical political economy theory of the media was deemed to be the most appropriate theoretical framework for this study. In media research, the critical political economy theory asserts that owners are able to regulate the output of the media institution either by intervening in the day-today operations, or by establishing general goals and understandings and appointing managerial and editorial staff to implement them within the constraints set by the overall allocation of resources. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, in particular in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis. Research findings indicate that overall, the political ownership of the newspaper had no direct bearing on the journalists' political role in the enhancement of democracy and good governance in Malawi. It established that despite the ownership of the Weekend Nation belonging to a prominent and influential politician, the editorial independence was not compromised. Contrary to general expectations, this study established that the Weekend Nation in Malawi, was critical to the political elite in an indiscriminate manner. Although it was not the focus of this study, the research also showed that market forces, in line with the stance taken by the critical political economy theory, had some impact on the Weekend Nation's editorial independence. The quest for more advertising revenue, to an extent, undermined the struggle for complete editorial independence. I give thanks to God Almighty, all the angels and saints for the grace and enrichment in my career. Words fail me to express sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Simphiwe Sesanti, whose scholarly guidance, motivation and leadership enabled me to travel through the academic journey with a vision. I also wish to thank most sincerely Professor Lizette Rabe and Dr. Gabriël Botma of the Stellenbosch University's Journalism Department, from whose insights I benefited greatly. I would also like to thank Mrs. Elizabeth Newman and Mrs. Lijuan Daniels who made my stay in the department very pleasant. For Elizabeth in particular, I am also grateful for the consolidation of our spiritual beliefs through the Stellenbosch Roman Catholic Parish, which was an important aspect during my research and beyond. My research would not have been possible without the financial support of the University of Stellenbosch's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' Graduate School which awarded me a full-time scholarship to pursue my dream and for that I am greatly indebted. I also thank the University of Malawi's Chancellor College for the gesture of a fully-paid leave throughout my studies. A special thanks to the Nation Publications Limited (NPL) management: CEO Mbumba Achuthan, Deputy CEO Alfred Mtonga, and former Managing Editor, late Edward Chitsulo for granting me access to their organisation, including all the former and present Weekend Nation journalists who took part in this study. The NPL library team was marvellous during the months I and my research assistant, Francis "Fra" Xavier Mpanga, spent there. "Fra", your contribution deserves special recognition. For staff of the Society of Malawi library in Blantyre, Chancellor College library and the National Archives in Zomba, Malawi, I express my sincere thanks for your support. I am also grateful to the Stellenbosch Journalism departmental colleagues in research, Adrian Stewart, Mphatisi Ndhlovu, Sibongile Mpofu, Irene Wamae, Marenet Jordaan and Nabila Hatimy as well as John Bosco Isunju from the Faculty of Science for their friendship and scholarly support. Finally, my profound gratitude goes to my family, specifically my mother for her tireless motherly and grandmotherly love and care. I also thank my wife Prisca, my children Sipho and Brianna who had to endure three years of my absence, my siblings Mwayi, Mtisunge, Chikondi, Khuma and Mwatitha as well as the Gunde and Mpanga clans for their moral support and words of encouragement in the course of my studies.

Communicatio, 2020

There are debates on the relevance of Eurocentric normative frameworks for studying the media in post-colonial Africa. Emerging from these debates is a rebuttal of the dominant Western-derived paradigms for the conceptualisation of journalistic norms, values and practices. Given that the dominant Western liberal models for normative media ethics are incongruent to the needs of Africa, there is a growing call to reconceptualise media ethics anchored upon alternative epistemologies and moral foundations such as ubuntuism. Although there is existing scholarship on ubuntuism as a framework for media ethics in Africa, none of these studies has focused particularly on Zimbabwe. Using the 16 August 2019 (hereafter August 16) protests as a photojournalistic "moment" as a frame, this article explores the views and perspectives of Zimbabwean journalists on their understanding of media ethics and professionalism. Further, it probes the possibilities of ubuntuism as a moral foundation of journalistic practice in the country. Journalists' views are diverse and contested on the nature and practice of media ethics in the country. Although ubuntuism is touted as a normative framework for media ethics, the Western liberal perspectives remain dominant. As such, post-colonial theory offers a useful approach to understanding the interconnections, contradictions and tensions underpinning media ethics in post-colonial Zimbabwe.

This article explores the relation between the government and the media in post-apartheid South Africa. An overview is given of key developments and tensions between the government and the media in the first 10 years of democracy and the ethical frameworks underlying the respective positions. An overview of the debate between the so-called “national interest” and the “public interest” is given, and linked to normative ethical frameworks of libertarianism vis-à-vis communitarianism. A mean between the 2 is suggested in the form of mutualism, whereas the necessity for conceptual clarification in debating the relation between the government and the media is emphasized.

Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism, 2014

The deregulation of the broadcast industry in Africa has helped politicians to advance their ambitions at the expense of the ethics of the profession of journalism. In Nigeria, there are prevalent cases of the state media being used by government to run political campaigns of only the political parties of the ruling class. This is the same story where private media organizations are owned by chieftains of some political parties in the country. Such media (both print and electronic) are used as propaganda machineries by these party chieftains and also used as media for carrying out negative reports about the party in power. Many African countries have similar situations. This paper looks at how the ownership of media organizations across the continent has interfered with the standards of professionalism in journalism. The paper will use the social responsibility theory and the libertarian theory to serve as theoretical framework. The paper will dwell more on the role of ownership in the media coverage of some African countries from 2011 to 2012 and try to make comparison with what is obtainable in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The deregulation of the broadcast industry in Africa has helped politicians to advance their ambitions at the expense of the ethics of the profession of journalism. In Nigeria where I come from, there are prevalent cases of the state media being used by government to run political campaigns of only the political parties of the ruling class. This is the same story where private media organisations are owned by chieftains of some political parties in the country. Such media (both print and electronic) are used as propaganda machineries by these party chieftains and also used as media for carrying out negative reports about the party in power. This paper will look at how the ownership of media organisations across the continent has interfered with the standards of professionalism in journalism. The paper will use the social responsibility theory and the libertarian theory to serve as theoretical framework. The paper will dwell more on the role of ownership in the media coverage of some African countries from 2011 to 2012 and try to make comparism with what is obtainable in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.