STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT 2021 40 MALAWI NEW ACCESS TO INFORMATION LAW BRINGS HOPE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK After years of lobbying by the Malawi’s media industry, the Access to Information Act was gazetted in January 2021. The new law brought the country closer to achieving targets set in Sustainable Development Goal 16, which seeks to “ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.” The government has made assurances that it will train more than 150 public information holders in various government departments and ministries on the new provisions of the law that compel them to release public information whenever they are requested to do so. By Teresa Temweka Chirwa-Ndanga INTRODUCTION T HERE was marked improvement in Malawi’s media environment in the period between 2020 and 2021 with the coming in of the new government of President Lazarus Chakwera. Chakwera’s government has also been taking practical steps to implement initiatives that promote openness such as introducing State House press briefings and “face the press briefings” conducted by the Information ministry on a regular basis. The briefings afford journalists from across the divide access to the highest office in the land. However, there are laws that remain in the country’s statute books that are a threat to freedom of expression and are from time to time used by the government to silence critics. Such laws include the Penal Code, Official Secrets Act (1913), Printed Publications Act (1947) and Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act and the Protected Flags, Emblems and Names Act, among others. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera CREDIT: The Times