Blantyre Newspapers Limited defies injunction: continues to carry banned ADMARC maize scandal story, calls for commission of inquiry

BLANTYRE (MaraviPost)—Despite ADMARC getting an injunction on Thursday stopping The Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL) from publishing stories concerning its shady maize deal with Zambia’s Kaloswe, BNL on Friday defied the injunction as it carried a story about ADMARC’s  questionable maize deal with the Zambian private company.

On Thursday, ADMARC through its lawyer obtained a court injunction restraining BNL also known as The Times Group from broadcasting or publishing what ADMARC called “untrue” stories about its maize deal with Kaloswe.

The injunction granted by the High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda also restrained the Times Group’s columnists from tackling the said story adding that doing so will be contempt of court.

However, Times Group through its live television program called the ‘Hot Current’ tackled the same story on Friday morning.

Through the program, Times Group asked the ADMARC boss Foster Mulumbe and his team to openly tell Malawians the truth and apologize other than rushing to court.

Times Group however said while they abide by the law, they are also mandated to tell Malawians what is happening on the ground.

“What ADMARC boss has done especially by taking the court injunction is also restricting Malawians from knowing the truth about the issue,” said one of the Times Group boss.

The Times group boss further told ADMARC that the restriction has gave them power to deeply dig into the truth of the matter.

While describing ADMARC’s leadership as a failure, Times Group has asked President Peter Mutharika to come up with a commission of inquiry to investigate the matter.

According to the leading media house, procuring the staple grain from Kaloswe has made the maize price in ADMARC depots to be high.

“If ADMARC would have bought the maize from Zambia Cooperation Federation the price would have been cheap,” they said.

Meanwhile some Malawians have described the ADMARC decision of getting the court injunction as unfortunate.