Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi Chapter has challenged news reporters in the country to hold politicians accountable ahead of the 2025 tripartite elections.
MISA Malawi Vice Chairperson Chisomo Ngulube made the remarks Tuesday morning at the opening of a four-day Chichewa Voter-centered elections reporting for journalists in the country.
According to Ngulube, the training has been organized with an aim of enabling reporters to publish or air election stories and programmes that focus on the voter.
“More often, journalists focus on the politicians. But at the end of the day, it is about the voters. What were their expectations when they went to vote in the 2019-2020 elections. Were their aspirations met? And if we focus on those stories, we will tell better stories because journalists serve the people,” said Ngulube.
The MISA Malawi Vice Chairperson added that journalists in the country need to complement the efforts of others in their role in ensuring a free and fair election come 2025.
“Journalists need to play a role and compliment efforts of others. It is a collaborative effort, as MISA Malawi, we are doing our part in ensuring a free and fair election in 2025,” added Ngulube.
In a separate interview, Political Commentator Victor Chipofya has welcomed the training, saying that journalists are critical in the society.
Chipofya said the 2025 elections will be one of the most intense elections in the country, hence the need to provide information to people in a right way.
“Journalists are critical in our society and they need to be constantly trained on how best to feed the nation with information. We know that this upcoming election is going to be one the most intensed elections we have had in this country.
“Therefore, the way that information is going to move to the people needs to be given in a right way. So, I do support this training because journalists will now see how best we can communicate that information to the people,” said Chipofya.
Speaking at the end of the day one training, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Media and Public Relations Officer Sangwani Mwafulirwa commended MISA Malawi for the training, saying it will go a long way in contributing to the credibility of the elections come 2025.
Mwafulirwa added that the training will help the journalists to send well packaged and well-prepared information to the public.
“As MEC, we have our own training sessions, but we are also very grateful when institutions like MISA Malawi do come up with initiatives to train the journalists because this will go a long way in contributing to the credibility of the elections.
“If journalists send information that is not well prepared and not well packaged to the public, it can work to the detriment of the electoral processes. That is why I am still emphasizing that the training is very important, and it would be our wish that so many stakeholders should come in so that each and every should be trained so that when they report about elections, they should report from an informed perspective,” said Mwafulirwa.
A total of 10 journalists from different media institutions in the country are set to be drilled on content knowledge of the electoral process and requisite skills on how they can write stories on election.
MISA Malawi has been organizing such trainings from 2019 to help equip reporters with skills in reporting for elections.
This training, which is taking place at Mtolankhani House in Lilongwe has been organized and supported by DW Akademie, Germany’s leading organisation for media development.
The lead trainer, according to MISA, is veteran Communications Specialist Anderson Fumulani.
MISA Malawi held a similar training last week in Mzuzu focusing on Tumbuka language.
