The Act prohibits the President from appointing political activists. It also requires that any change to the composition of the board should be gazetted and that at least half of the membership be re-appointed for another term in office. Joy Radio questioned the legality of MACRA’s board in early 2007 and argued that, among other issues, the appointment of the members was not gazetted as required by law. President Bingu wa Mutharika suspended MACRA’s board on April 4, 2005, before dissolving it on April 8 the same year. The President accused the board of “stinking” and replaced it with a new board on 2 March 2006 whose chairperson was once an executive member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Joy Radio also argued that some members lacked qualifications, expertise and experience in any field of post and telecommunications, broadcasting, frequency planning, law, economics, business, finance, public administration and public affairs. Joy Radio’s lawyer, Ralph Kasambara also argued that the board did not retain old members as is required by the Communications Act, for continuity’s sake. • ALERT Date: May 22, 2007 Persons: Caroline Somanje, Jika Nkolokosa Violation: Threatened Caroline Somanje, a senior reporter working with Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL), publishers of the Daily Times newspaper, has been fired from her job for writing a story that implicated a Catholic priest and a bank manager. The bank manager is a banker for BNL. Somanje was summoned to a disciplinary hearing after she wrote a story on the front page of one of Blantyre Newspapers publications, The Daily Times, on May 14 which implicated the two as having an affair with a married woman. Blantyre Newspapers General Manager, Jika Nkolokosa was also suspended pending a disciplinary hearing for what the management says is his failure to exercise sound editorial judgement concerning the same story. The paper subsequently retracted the whole story and apologised to all people who might have been injured by publication of the story. A letter from the management to Somanje said the reporter breached a journalist’s code of ethics and the company’s editorial policy by authoring the story without giving the subjects, whose reputation was affected, a chance to be heard. It also said that the story was a private matrimonial matter and was not in public interest as divorce matters take place in the courts everyday and are not reported unless they involve well-known public figures. However, the reporter said there was no need to contact the subjects as she got the story from a court ruling where the husband of the woman sought a divorce after discovering that his wife was having an affair with the two men. • ALERT Date: April 10, 2007 Persons: 13 private radio broadcasters Violation: Censored On April 10 2007, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) informed all private radio stations that they are to seek official permission – in advance - from the regulating body should they wish to carry live broadcasts. A statement from MACRA also said the regulating body has ceased issuing radio and television broadcasting service licences upon application by those intending to introduce the service. These developments come four days after Information Minister, Patricia Kaliati visited MACRA offices in Blantyre and challenged the regulator’s board members and management to be strict, strong, tough and professional in regulating private radio stations. The minister also urged the So This Is Democracy? 2007 -50- Media Institute of Southern Africa