Malawi’s constitutional guarantees on press freedom and access to information are negated by over 40 pieces of legislation on the statute book that have the potential to suppress press freedom. The breakthrough in 2022 was the repeal by the Malawi government of sedition and insult laws, especially ones on insulting the president, which successive governments in Malawi have used to restrict freedoms of expression and opinion and silence critical voices. To illustrate shrinking civic space, the government enacted the Non-Governmental Organisations Act in March 2022. The law contains provisions that threaten the independence, existence and operations of nongovernmental organisations. These restrictions include a very narrow definition of an NGO and could exclude a large number of organisations; it calls for mandatory registration and provides the regulatory body with excessive discretion granted and authority to suspend, cancel and revoke registration; prohibits “electioneering and politicking” by NGOs; and spells out disproportionate criminal sanctions against organisations and their leaders for non-compliance with the Act. MEDIA PLURALISM AND DIVERSITY Malawi reportedly has 57 public, private commercial, private religious and communityowned and operated radio stations in Malawi. However, the impact of COVID-19 may have resulted in a reduction of media outlets still operating and of course budget cuts also led retrenchments in media houses. This in turn impacts on the diversity and plurality of the media. The country’s broadcasting regulatory body, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), carried out the largest radio and television station closures in Malawi’s history due to delays in payment of annual licence fees without consideration of the challenges that the media faced and continue to face. Some broadcasting stations looked for additional support from their communities, while one media outlet took out a loan. In other instances, members of staff relinquished their salaries to pay towards the licence fees. The revocation of licences impacts heavily on not just on media freedom but also on citizens’ access to information rights, particularly because radio is the most popular and easiest medium to access on the African continent. However, both the regional and local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa undertook a vigorous advocacy campaign around the issue by making a presentation to Parliament and Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera 47