SECTOR 2 The media landscape, including new media, is characterised by diversity, independence and sustainability. 2.1 A wide range of sources of information (print, broadcasting, internet, mobile phones) is accessible and affordable to citizens. There are numerous state, private and community owned broadcasters and print outlets in Malawi. The most accessible means of accessing information is through radio, as literacy in English is low - the 2008 census statistics showed it to be only one percent. The cost of daily newspapers, which are mostly published in English, is too high for the majority of the population at about K250 (US$1) each. Newspapers used to cost K300 before the currency was devalued in May 2012, effectively halving Malawians’ salaries. When the government removed VAT of 16.5 percent from newspapers in June 2012, their cover price dropped to K250. As a comparison, a loaf of brown bread costs K290. An estimated 62 percent of the 15.4 million Malawian population live below the poverty line, surviving on less than US$1 a day. An additional 22 percent are considered “ultra poor” by the United Nations standards. Print There are two daily newspapers in Malawi, both privately owned and published in English: The Daily Times and The Nation. The Nation has a circulation of about 18,000 per day. There are six privately owned weekly newspapers, including the Business Times, which emerged within the last two years. Two of these weekly newspapers are published in English and Chichewa (Malawi News and Weekend Nation), while the fortnightly Fuko Nation is published in the indigenous languages, Chichewa and Tumbuka. The Weekend Nation sells about 30,000 copies every Saturday. There are currently no daily state owned newspapers. Boma Lathu, which used to be a monthly publication, appears very irregularly, and the Weekly News stopped being published in December 2010. Another state newspaper that evolved out of the Weekly News was the Malawi Mail, but this also ceased publication, in December 2011. These were all products of the government’s information department within the Ministry of Information. There are five local magazines in Malawi: a weekly, three bi-monthlies and a quarterly. They are all published in English, except for Nkwaso magazine, which is published in Chichewa by the Catholic Church and emerged on the market within the last two years. 26 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MALAWI 2012