Media barred from public reforms meeting

The Public Service Reforms Management Unit (PSRMU) in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has come under fire for barring journalists from covering the on-going Sectoral Conference on the Implementation of the Public Sector Reforms.

Journalists, who have been covering the conference since Monday, yesterday woke up to a rude awakening when an official from the unit ordered them out of the meeting room at Sunbird Capital in Lilongwe.

The development came barely a day after the unit’s chief director, Seodi White, refused to grant The Nation an interview to clarify a number of issues in her presentation on State produce trader Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc), accusing the newspaper of being hell-bent to have her fired through the story titled Reforms On Deathbed published on July 28 this year.

In the story, The Nation reported that the programme had lost momentum six months after the initiative was moved to the OPC from the direct supervision of its political champion, Vice-President Saulos Chilima.

The Nation’s interviews with multiple sources—including local government councils, OPC and MDAs—showed little contact between the reforms unit at the OPC and implementing agencies.

Reacting to the reforms team’s decision, one journalist who faced the harsh treatment said she could not figure out the crime the media had committed to deserve such a ban.

Governance commentators and human rights activists have also described the development as unfair, unfortunate and undemocratic and a step towards denying Malawians information and access to the reforms.

Media Institute of Southern African (Misa) Malawi Chapter chairperson Teresa Ndanga condemned the act, saying while the institute was yet to get a full report on the issue, it would be unfortunate if indeed government has decided to bar journalists.

Media Council of Malawi (MCM) executive director Vales Machila said the reforms team should justify its decision.

He said: “That is not a healthy situation. The media is supposed to cover every public function that borders on the welfare of the people. If they had good reasons for barring journalists, they should have given an explanation.”

Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) executive director Gift Trapence said the act was against government commitment to promote transparency and accountability in the public service.

Undule Mwakasungula, a governance, human rights and social commentator, said the media is critical to the success of the reforms; hence, he did not expect the unit to ban reporters from covering the conference.

White could not be drawn into commenting on the development as she said she was in a meeting.

On Monday, Chief Secretary to the Government Lloyd Muhara rated implementation success rate at 85 percent for the agencies rolling out the reforms. n