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afrol News, 28 May - According to reports from the media watchdog MISA, a Malawian publishing house and a newspaper are under attack for having reported critically on President Bakili Muluzi and his assumed intention of running for an unconstitutional third term. The owner of Karora Printers & Publishing House, Kalera Mhango, and editor of "The Dispatch" newspaper, Martines Namingah, effectively ended a police search when they surrendered themselves to Lingadzi police station on 25 and 26 May respectively. The two were charged with "publishing false information likely to cause public fear and alarm", an offence they both denied having committed, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) reports. According to a report in "The Chronicle" newspaper Namingah and Mhango were released on police bail after a short court appearance on Saturday, 26 May. No dates haves been set for further court appearances. The charges come in the wake of a series of articles in "The Dispatch" entitled: "Muluzi scared", "Muluzi fuelled the ID scam" and "NIB spying on UDF MPs" that appeared on the second page of the paper's issue Number 9 of Volume 1 dated 23 May 2001. The first story alleged that President Bakili Muluzi was scared, following reports that the opposition was planning to impeach him in the June parliamentary sitting. The other story, quoting the former UDF minister Brown Mpinganjira intimated that the president was the most corrupt person in the country while the third story laid out charges that the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) was spying on ruling UDF Members of Parliament who sympathise with Mpinganjira's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) pressure group which he formed after being removed. In a related development, police had released four vendors on bail of K5 000. They were arrested on the 25 May for selling "The Dispatch" newspaper. Managing Editor of "The Chronicle" newspaper, Pushpa Jamieson, told MISA that independent media practitioners were very concerned about recent developments in Malawi. - It is one thing to slap us (newspapers) with lawsuits, but quite another when they attack the printers, she said. "Chances are that printers will refuse to touch our publications for fear of being locked up," she went on. Media activists view this recent clampdown on the media in Malawi as an effort to silence dissenting voices and as a prelude to an unconstitutional third term bid by the incumbent president. Silence by President Muluzi on the issue had evoked much criticism from the independent media especially after calls from the church and civil society groups for the president to declare himself. He has remained resolutely silent on the matter. Source: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
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