The 2007 winner of the MISA Press Freedom Award Aleke Banda A leke Banda is a Malawian journalist who is now the proprietor of a newspaper chain. He became involved in journalism from the age of 13 when he was put in charge of the school newspaper. Later, his school paper stories appeared in the then African Weekly and the Bantu Mirror publications. His articles also appeared in the renowned South African magazine, Drum. As early as 1959, he was detained for his work at Khami Prison in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He was deported to the then Nyasaland on May 7, 1959. In December of the same year, he became editor of Malawi News, a paper that lives on to this day. Malawi News started as a mouthpiece of the Malawi Communist Party but it later grew into a fully-fledged weekly newspaper. In April 1960, Mr. Ian MacLeod, the then British Colonial Secretary, visited Malawi, lifted the State of Emergency and released Dr Kamuzu Banda from detention on April 1, 1960. In June 1960, Malawi Press Limited was established and Aleke was appointed its first Managing Director. A small printing press was bought. From January to December, 1963, he spent several months at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in England and after that he was appointed as the first Director General of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation in 1964, working up to July 1966, when he was appointed as Cabinet Minister for Development and Planning in Malawi also responsible for information and broadcasting. From January 1980 to July 1992, Aleke was detained without trial, having fallen out with Dr Banda over some policy matters relating to the Malawi economy and management of Press Holdings Limited. After his release from detention, he joined the movement to bring about multi-party democracy in Malawi. His interest in journalism and belief in the power of the media to inform, educate and influence events, led his family to establish Nation Publications Limited to publish and print a newspaper which started off as a bi-weekly and grew to a daily, The Nation. This was followed by Saturday Nation (now Weekend Nation), Nation On Sunday and Nation OnLine. The organisation has been guided by an Editorial Policy which in part reads: ‘It is a fundamental constitutional right to have freedom of opinion and expression. This includes the right to hold, receive and impart opinions… Freedom of the press shall mean and include that freedom from restraint which is essential to enable proprietors, editors and journalists to advance the public interest by publishing facts and opinions without which any democratic society cannot develop, progress or make responsible judgment.” This is supported by the Nation Publications slogan which reads: “Freedom of expression the birthright of all.” So This Is Democracy? 2007 -282- Media Institute of Southern Africa