Voter-centred reporting critical to elections

As the country gears up for the May 21 Tripartite Elections, journalists have been urged to report on voter-centred issues and not only political aspirants’ policies and promises.

German media trainer Andreas Lange said in Blantyre on Tuesday that voters’ welfare was the heartbeat of any election.

Lange, a trainer from Deutsch Welle Academy—Germany’s leading organisation for media development—is facilitating a three-day voter-centred election reporting training organised by Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa)-Malawi Chapter for 11 Southern Region-based journalists.

He urged the media to shift from politician-centred coverage during the forthcoming campaign and start looking at emerging problems to enable the electorate make informed decisions.

“The media has the capacity to empower the voter so that they demand accountability from the candidates,” said Lange.

In her remarks, Misa-Malawi chairperson Teresa Ndanga said the training seeks to help journalists focus on the needs of the voters and not only on politicians or aspirants in covering the May elections.

“We should begin to move away from focusing on personalities. We think journalists can set such an agenda and this would help reduce tensions during the elections. In that sense, journalists can propagate peace,” she said.

Ndanga said Misa Malawi expects journalists to also help unpack political parties’ manifestos for voters’ easy understanding and also take the voters’ needs to the candidates.

One of the local facilitators, Anderson Fumulani, observed that most local newspapers are dominated by politician-centred stories. He urged the journalists to persistently write about issues that affect voters.

Misa-Malawi has been running training sessions on different thematic areas  for its members and partners facilitated by Lange. n