20 In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21 tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. – Deuteronomy 6:20-23
“Given the chance to choose between a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President, 1801-1808
On Sunday, May 3, 2026, was World Press Freedom Day. Happy 35th Press Freedom Day to all media colleagues, Malawians, and all humanity! It has been a long, bumpy, sometimes smooth, sometimes rough 35 years on this road as first the African continent and now the entire global community appended their laws to pave the way for press freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of dress, and, of course, freedom of association. These concepts have not always been among us. For example, in Malawi before 1991, the daily diet of Malawians was repression, suppression, and oppression; sometimes the period in question (1964 to 1994) is called the reign of terror under the leadership of then former president known as Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda.
But while it is sometimes lucrative, advantageous to blame one man, the leader who has been gone for 30 years, Kamuzu Banda had accomplices. Politicians, both men and women, even corporate officials wanting or needing to make hay as the sun shines, 30 years under the Malawi Congress Party headed by Kamuzu, was a mighty, invincible system.
Thank God for press freedom and all the other freedoms, because under the MCP rule, Malawians had carved a system that was a choke-hold for all Malawians. It is for this that I recount the road to Press Freedom in Malawi for me, which started with former Chief Information Officer Tony Mita calling me to his office. I was to be interviewed by the then UNESCO Regional Director, Jonathan Nathaniel Mlevu Moyo, to be a delegate at a UNESCO conference in Namibia.
The name of the conference was problematic (“Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press”). Not only was the press to be independent, but it was also to have many voices. These were all strange concepts in 1991 Malawi. Director Moyo endorsed my candidature to be the Malawi delegate to the UNESCO 3-day conference from April 29 to May 3, 1991. All my expenses were to be paid by the organizers of the event.
It was in order that someone in the Malawi political machinery sourced money to invest in two police men to not only travel to Namibia with me, but to keep a short leash on me, so that I don’t bring the country into disrepute. That would anger the Ngwazi. Thus, Malawi had four Malawi representatives; these were, namely, Janet Karim, delegate; Al Osman, Botswana Observer editor, and two policemen (one from Malawi Police headquarters and another from State House. The two law enforcement men were not delegates, but managed to get themselves into the room where the meeting was to be held. The first morning, they sat with me in the middle, totally preventing me from asking questions or speaking.
Thanks to my elder in the procession Al Osman, when I told him about being muzzled by the policemen, he invited me to sit with him up front. From that place, I told the conference of my dilemma, and that if I disappear or something (anything untoward), they should ask the two non-delegate persons from Malawi. For the rest of the conference, they sat in the back but spent more time in the bar.
The Namibia conference had gathered in the Windhoek hotel delegations from a total of 63 participants from 38 African countries attended the three-day seminar that culminated in the Windhoek Declaration on Press Freedom, with May 3 as the day to celebrate Press Freedom.
From Windhoek, other regions followed suit. These were the Alma-Ata Declaration in 1992 in Kazakhstan; in 1993, the United Nations declared May 3 as World Press Freedom Day; then, in 1994 it was the Santiago Declaration; and in Yemen in 1996 it was the Sana Declaration; and lastly, in 1997, there was the Sofia Declaration that was embraced by Central and Eastern Europe, Sofia, Bulgaria. All these were Promoting Independent and Pluralistic Media.
Thirty-five years on from that wonderful gathering of media professional minds, many countries, including the United States, which is the leader of the free world, and others like the United Kingdom, experience rough rides with an independent and indeed plural press. In Malawi, political heavyweights, whether in government or merely in party positions, continue to attempt to shackle media personalities for writing articles or expressing opinions that are not favorable to the subject of those articles or opinions.
But gratefully, the gift of writing comes with a heaping portion of resilience. And thus, many players stay for the long haul. While many have suffered accusations of writing to seek fame or fortune, many are here for the pure joy of enlightening, educating, and entertaining the reading or listening populations; many are in it to make public figures accountable to their promises or live up to the earnings they get from taxpayers’ money.
Whatever the reason, many follow the Jeffersonian principle: “Given the chance to choose between a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Happy 2026 Press Freedom Day!
Leave a Reply