4.10 Journalists and other media practitioners are organized in trade unions and/or professional associations ANALYSIS: There are at least three media unions operating in Malawi at the moment. These are the Communication Workers Union of Malawi (COWUMA); MBC Workers Union and the Journalists’ Union of Malawi (JUMA). They are all voluntary. There are also a number of media associations, the most popular of which is MISA Malawi. The others are the Nyika, Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Kabula Press Clubs; the Malawi Women Media Association (MAMWA) and Malawi chapter of Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA); the Community Radio Association and the National Editors Forum (NEFORM) SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 4.2 (2006 = 3.7) OVERALL SCORE FOR SECTOR 4: 3.2 (2006 = 2.7) OVERALL COUNTRY SCORE: 2.7 (2006 = 2.6) Follow-up questions in Round Two Have there been any changes in the media environment over the last two years? The period 2006-2007 has registered • The withholding of budgetary allocation for public broadcasting due to perceived bias by public broadcasters • Consultations for the Access to Information Bill, pending its passage into law • The resuscitation of the Media Council of Malawi and the birth of the Journalists’ Union of Malawi (JUMA). The Broadcasters Association of Malawi (BAMA) and the National Editors Forum (NEFORM) have since gone to sleep • Inauguration of sign language on TVM • The wrangle of the licence of Joy Tv continued while a Lilongwe-based broadcaster, Radio Pakiso, gets a licence waiver to go on air • Jamieson Publications’ The Chronicle and independent Weekly Courier folded Agents of positive change • MISA Malawi has been a major catalyst for the Access to Information Bill, the revival of the Media Council and the founding of the JUMA Agents for negative change • MACRA’s refusal to regulate the public broadcaster finally culminated into Parliament So This Is Democracy? 2008 -194- Media Institute of Southern Africa