LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) this week challenged media managers in Malawi to handle electoral stories with cation for effecting reporting.

Commissioner Nkosi  said; “We at MEC are geared to conduct this year’s elections in transparent, fair and professional manner than ever before, but this can only be achieved if the media take a leading role in disseminating the right information to the masses,” said Nkosi.

Nkosi said it was important for the media to always abide by the electoral media code of conduct which was developed by the electoral body.

She also advised media managers to scrutinise and verify stories that are posted on social media platform before publishing them, saying some of such stories aim at misleading and causing panic amongst the electorate.

“As media managers please try as much as possible to verify and make research on stories which are posted on social media so that the electorate gets the right information,” she said.

Commonwealth Communications Director, Neil Ford said biased reporting on electoral issues is the common problem in Africa.

Ford said in almost all African countries, public broadcasters favour the ruling parties while the private media favour opposition parties, a tendency which he said is counterproductive in electoral reporting.

“It is the duty of the media to make the voters know about all candidates so that they make the right choice.

“Let the public broadcasters and the private media come up with programmes that will make the voters know their candidates and who to vote for,” he said.

Ford’s remarks come barely few days after Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Henry Mussa advised Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to open up and feature opposition parties in their programming.