TO: THE HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF THE PARLIAMENT IN
PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
The Petition of the Undersigned:
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Centre for Development of
People (CEDEP)
State that: GOVERNMENT OF MALAWI TO SIGN THE
TABLE MOUNTAIN DECLARATION
The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Centre for the
Development of People (CEDEP)—concerned with the inaction by the Government of
Malawi (GoM) to commit to the Table Mountain Declaration that the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Malawi) officially presented to Her
Excellency President Joyce Banda on April 22 2013—hereby petitions Members of
Parliament (MPs) through the office of the Speaker to embrace the Declaration.
We believe that charges of criminal defamation, criminal libel and
insult amount to penalization of freedom of expression, which is enshrined in
the Malawi Republican as a right and is the very essence of democracy that
Malawians chose in 1993. Apart from being damaging slaps against democratic
values, these laws also limit the pluralization of thoughts and hinder the
contribution of opinions to Malawi’s development. The idea that someone should
be jailed for publicizing his or her thoughts is so chilling that the Legislature—the
symbol of our fledgling yet enduring democracy—must join well-meaning Malawians
and other stakeholders to reject the “insult laws” by supporting the Table
Mountain Declaration.
BACKGROUND
In June 2007, media leaders across the globe gathered in Cape Town,
South Africa under the auspices of the World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers and the World Editors Forum where they made an urgent call to
African leaders to consider press freedom as a key to sustainable economic,
political, social and cultural development, prosperity and peace in Africa by
repealing colonial laws that restrict press freedom. This call is what has come
to be known as the Declaration of Table Mountain. It is in view of this
background that when MISA-Malawi, led by its chairperson Mr. Anthony Kasunda,
met with Her Excellency President Banda on April 26, 2013, Mr. Kasunda formally
presented the Table Mountain Declaration and asked the President to endorse it.
The centre-piece of the Declaration is that it calls upon African governments
to respect and uphold freedom of the press by, among other things, abolishing
‘insult’ and criminal defamation laws which continue to be applied to harass,
arrest and/or imprison media practitioners in most African countries.
The Declaration calls for the review and abolishment of all laws that
restrict press freedom and notes that;
"…Press freedom remains key to the establishment of good governance
and durable economic, political, social and cultural development, prosperity
and peace in Africa, and to the fight against corruption, famine, poverty,
violent conflict, disease and lack of education…."
It also condemns
"…All
forms of repression of African media that allows for banning of newspapers and
the use of other devices such as levying import duties on newsprint and
printing materials and withholding advertising…"
MISA-Malawi was positive that the President would embrace the
Declaration given her earlier demonstration to upholding fundamental principles
of media freedom immediately she assumed office, including the repeal of
Section 46 of the Penal Code and her call on MPs during the opening of the 43rd
Session of Parliament in May 2012 to repeal laws that are repressive and deny
Malawians their right to freedom of expression.
However to our dismay, the President refused to sign the Declaration,
saying during the meeting that she saw no reason for doing so when the media in
Malawi are always insulting her. Later, the President’s reasons for not signing
later changed, saying she had not endorsed it due to insufficient time,
consultations and briefings. Yet, MISA-Malawi had made efforts to meet the
Minister of Information, the Principal Secretary and the President herself
without any job.
OUR OBSERVATIONS
It has become increasingly clear that there is no political will in the
Joyce Banda administration to endorse the Table Mountain Declaration despite
the earlier positive gestures to repeal Section 46 of the Penal Code and urging
Parliament to review media laws.
We have noted with concern that as her honeymoon ebbed and the media
became more critical about her administration’s handling of the economy, her
extravagance and procurement flaws, the President and her administration have
increased their unfair attacks against the local media. Who knows what this
government can do as it gets more comfortable with power and the exercise of
it? What will stop this administration from applying these “insult laws” to
jail critical media practitioners?
In fact, we fear that at the rate things are going, this administration
could enter the anals of Malawi’s history as the most media-phobic government
the country has ever seen—and everyone must be concerned.
Let us be clear. We at CHRR and CEDEP do not condone irresponsible
journalism. The media has a lot of power at their disposal and must use it
responsibly and always in the public interest. We accept that the press must
account for their actions and that irresponsible journalism must be punished,
but we do not believe that such recourse should include criminalization. We
believe that public apologies, retraction or clarification of stories and civil
suits can provide enough remedy. CHRR and CEDEP unequivocal position is that
criminal defamation is unnecessary, threatens media freedom and is incompatible
with our democratic values.
We, therefore, call for the unconditional liberation of journalists from
the shackles of so-called insult laws. We therefore, petition Honourable
Members of Parliament to:
Your petitioners respectfully request that the
Honourable House take action to;
- Pass a motion during the current sitting of Parliament endorsing the declaration and urging the President to follow the footsteps of the leaders of Ghana and Liberia by signing it.
- Proactively start reviewing media laws towards repeal of so called “insult laws” such as criminal defamation.
Dated 7th day of June 2013
About CHRR and CEDEP
The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation
(CHRR) remains one of the leading human rights non-governmental in Malawi. It was founded in February 1995 as a
non-profit organization registered under the Trustees Incorporation Act of
1962. Since its inception CHRR has
championed its work at national level, SADC level through the SADC Human Rights
Defenders Network at which it sits in the board, continental level through the
African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights using its observer status, and
at UN level through different UN mechanisms such as the International
Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR).
The Centre for Development of the People (CEDEP)
is a registered human rights organization under the Trustees Incorporation Act
of 1962. The organization was established in November 2005 in order to address
the needs and challenges of minority groups in Malawi in the context of human
rights, health and social development. CEDEP works at UN level through
different UN mechanisms such as the International Convention on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Timothy Mtambo
Gift Trapence
Acting Executive Director
Executive
Director
CHRR
CEDEP
+265992166191 +2650991573514
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