State of the media in Southern Africa - 2003 police and a motorist at a police roadblock on Zalewa road, between Blantyre and Mwanza districts. The journalists were returning from a field visit organised by the Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA). • DATE: October 28, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Frank Namangale VIOLATIONS: Victory (Legal action) D irector of Public Prosecution (DPP) Fahad Assani has instructed police to drop a case against Frank Namangale, a reporter for Daily Times newspaper. Namangale had been charged with authoring an article likely to cause “breach of public peace”. *See alert of September 16 2003. The DPP said the story the reporter wrote was credible, the only error being that it made reference to Muluzi’s son when it should, in fact, have made reference to his nephew. • DATE: November 7, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Frank Namangale VIOLATIONS: Victory (Legal action) D irector of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fahad Assani has written to the Malawi Police, ordering it to discontinue arbitrary arrests of journalists, and warning that such acts are unconstitutional. Assani’s letter closely followed his statement in late October 2003 in which he said he would not prosecute Daily Times reporter Frank Namangale, whom the police arrested for authoring an article in which he quoted police sources as saying President Bakili Muluzi’s son had been arrested for armed robbery. The DPP advised the police not to attack the wrong people if they are to be called professional. “If the state wants to take up issues, then the people to be taken to task are not the press persons but those that offend the law. Do not shoot the messenger; go and deal with the sender of the messenger,” he said. So This Is Democracy? 2003 52 Media Institute of Southern Africa