By Chancy Namadzunda:
Revocation broadcasting licences by of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has affected over 250 full-time and part-time media practitioners and support staff who have lost their jobs, according to MISA Malawi.
MACRA has been revoking licences of radio and Television stations who have failed to pay accumulative annual licence fees.
Two notices of enforcement action against non-compliant communication licencees that MACRA released on July 14 and 19, 2022 show that, in total, licences for 23 radio stations and six television stations may be revoked by the end of 2022.
Since June 2022, MACRA has revoked licences of three television stations and six radio stations over delays to pay annual licence fees. The stations include Rainbow Television, Angaliba Television, Ufulu Television, Angaliba FM, Capital Radio, Sapitwa FM, Joy Radio, Ufulu FM and Galaxy FM.
A statement signed by MISA Malawi Chairperson Teresa Ndanga said 70 employees have been affected at Rainbow Television, 34 at Ufulu FM, 40 at Joy Radio, 45 at Capital Radio and others coming from Sapitwa FM, Galaxy and Angaliba.
“This is happening at a time the Chakwera administration is championing an agenda of job creation and preserving the available ones through the Ministry of Labour, which has unfortunately remained silent on the issue,” reads part of the statement
Ndanga said this is also happening when companies are trying to rebuild following a devastating Covid-19 pandemic during which many businesses, including the media, were affected.
“Businesses have also been struggling to survive the economic difficulties that the country is going through, which evidently led to the devaluation of the kwacha with a historically high percentage of 25%.
“The issues that are leading to the revocation of licences are not new. Past administrations did not close down stations for delaying to pay license fees. We believe the decision not to close down stations was due to respect for fundamental rights including media freedom, access to information and economic rights of hundreds of Malawians employed by the affected media outlets.
“Through several platforms and engagements, broadcasters have raised concerns about high annual fees that they have to pay to MACRA, the fees being pegged in US dollars, other monthly fees that they have to pay to MTL and MBDNL and the fact that business has generally not been smooth in the last few years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the general poor performance of the economy.
“Despite the engagements, MACRA, whose regulatory mandate also includes creating a favourable environment for the growth of the sector, has not done anything to address such concerns. Despite MACRA’s inaction, broadcasters made efforts to pay in instalments, but MACRA went ahead to revoke lisences even where the final payments had already been made. This leaves us with questions on MACRA’s real intentions,” reads part of the statement
