“Malawi’s Constitutional Court has taken a monumental step towards protecting press freedom and affirmed that criticism and dissent are essential to democracy by ruling criminal defamation to be unconstitutional,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in Nairobi. “Authorities should immediately comply with the judgment, and other laws that may unduly restrict the work of journalists must also be reformed.” 

In a unanimous decision, three constitutional court justices ruled that the defamation law was a “disproportionate and unjustifiable limitation on constitutional freedom,” according to a summary of the judgment reviewed by CPJ.

The ruling follows social media influencer and activist Joshua Chisa Mbele’s 2022 legal challenge of criminal defamation charges for his remarks about a military official.

In its decision, the court ordered that no further prosecutions on criminal defamation charges be brought under the law.

The Malawian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and other civil society organizations urged the government not to appeal the ruling and to reform other laws that restrict free expression. Section 60 of Malawi’s penal code criminalizes publishing false news, with penalties of fines or up to two years in jail, and the 2016 Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act makes unauthorized transmitting data or information punishable by a fine of 2,000,000 Malawian kwacha (USD $1,153) and a 5-year imprisonment. 

In 2022, Malawi amended its Protected Flag, Emblems, and Names Act of 1967, to decriminalize insults against the president but retained prison time for those convicted of insults to flags or protected emblems.

Malawi Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda did not respond to CPJ’s calls or text messages for comment on the court’s decision.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On April 7, three supporters of the club, also known as Wanderers FC, approached a designated area for the press during a Super League of Malawi match with Kamuzu Barracks FC in Kamuzu Stadium, in the southern city of Blantyre, and ordered Limu and other journalists to leave without explanation, according to the Malawi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa press rights group and Limu, who spoke with CPJ.

Two of the three men shoved Limu, a reporter with the privately owned TV Islam Malawi, and hit him in the face with his own tripod, those sources said.

Limu told CPJ that his tripod and wristwatch were damaged in the attack and he sought treatment at a local hospital for a swollen face and painful injured jaw.

“Malawian sports journalists should not have to fear of violence from football fans whenever they cover a match,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo from Nairobi. “Authorities should investigate the assault of Yasin Limu, and the Football Association of Malawi and Confederation of African Football should act to ensure journalists can report on matches safely.”

Limu said he planned to file a police complaint when he returned to Blantyre from a journalism assignment.

He is the latest Malawian journalist to be assaulted by football fans while on duty. In August,  Silver Strikers Football Club supporters assaulted Kasupe Radio reporter Smart Chalika as he photographed a scuffle between rival fans at Bingu National Stadium in the capital, Lilongwe.

On April 10, Wanderers FC board directors Chancy Gondwe and David Kanyenda apologized to Limu in a phone call and paid TV Islam Malawi 100,000 kwacha (US$58) to repair the tripod and wristwatch, the journalist told CPJ. 

Gondwe told CPJ via messaging app that the matter was now “water under the bridge.”

Kanyenda referred queries to Wanderers FC’s chief executive officer Panganeni Ndovi who told CPJ, via messaging app, that the club had apologized because it was responsible for the journalist’s safety.

“We told him [Limu] to report to the police because we don’t want this happening again during matches,” Ndovi said.

Gomezgani Zakazaka, the Football Association of Malawi’s communications and competitions manager, told CPJ by phone that it was “monitoring the case with interest” but the matter was being handled by the match organizer, the Super League of Malawi.

Super League of Malawi spokesperson Collins Nsunza referred CPJ’s query to chief executive officer Faith Mzungu-Vilakati, who did not respond to calls or text messages requesting comment.

CPJ’s phone calls and text messages to Mervin Nkunika, chairperson of Wanderers FC’s supporters association and email to Luxolo September, spokesperson for the Confederation of African Football, requesting comment did not receive any replies.

Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya told CPJ that action could only be taken if Limu filed a complaint.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On April 7, Chester Chikumbutso Doba, a detective in the Malawi Police Service’s Cyber Crime Unit, summoned Mhone to appear for questioning the following day at a police station in the commercial capital of Blantyre, according to a statement by the Malawi chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), news reports, the journalist, and his lawyer Joseph Lihoma, who separately spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Mhone was questioned and arrested at the Wenela police station in Blantyre the following day in connection with two articles published August 2023 by the privately owned Malawi24 news site, which alleged police involvement in corruption with a local businessman according to those same sources. Mhone worked with Malawi24 until March 27, 2024. Mhone told CPJ that police transferred him on April 9 to police headquarters in the capital of Lilongwe, about 186 miles from Blantyre.

“I was treated like a criminal when I was being taken to Lilongwe,” the journalist said. “Police handcuffed me as though I was going to run away when I handed myself over to them on Monday [April 8].”

Mhone said Doba questioned him for the first time at police headquarters, also in connection to his August 2023 Malawi24 reporting. The police informed Mhone that he was facing charges of publishing false news, likely to cause fear or public alarm, extorting the businessman, and cyber spamming unspecified persons.Prosecutors are expected to prepare a formal charge sheet to be presented in court, according to Lihoma. Mhone was released later that day. 

“Macmillan Mhone’s arrest points to authorities’ intolerance for reporting that sheds light on allegations of corruption involving the security services,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi.“Instead of targeting journalists, authorities in Malawi should spend their time investigating those allegations. The cybercrime, extortion, and false news charges leveled against Macmillan Mhone must be dropped without delay.” 

If convicted of publishing false news Mhone faces up to two years in prison and/or a fine at the discretion of the court, while an extortion conviction carries up to 14 years in prison, according to Malawi’s penal code. The cyber spamming charge includes a 2,000,000 Malawian kwacha (about US$1,150) fine and imprisonment of five years if found guilty, according to section 91 Malawi’s Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act.

The police seized the Mhone’s mobile phone soon after his arrest and handed it back to him the morning of April 10, the journalist and Lihoma separately told CPJ. It is unclear whether police searched the mobile device.

According to Mhone’s bail document, the journalist is scheduled to appear in court in Lilongwe on April 23, 2024, for the spamming and extortion charges. Lihoma told CPJ that it was unclear why the bail document does not mention the publication of false news charge.

Mhone is the latest Malawian journalist to be targeted by authorities in connection with reporting on alleged corruption. In February, investigative journalist Gregory Gondwe fled Malawi over fears that he would be arrested in connection with his coverage of alleged military dealings with a businessman under investigation for corruption, according to a CPJ statement at the time and news reports. In 2022 Gondwe was arrested for several hours, also in connection with corruption reporting. 

Detective Doba refused to comment when reached by CPJ via messaging app, referring all queries to Malawi Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya. Kalaya promised to return CPJ’s calls but did not. Kalaya also did not respond to written requests for comment sent via text message and messaging app. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The seizures took place largely at MBC offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu following a complaint by MBC’s management about the creation of a “fake” Facebook page bearing the corporation’s name and logo, which the outlet had not approved, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the journalists, and police search warrants reviewed by CPJ. The complaint accused the 14 journalists of “spamming,” which carries a maximum penalty of two million Malawian kwacha (about US$1,190) and imprisonment for five years under section 91 of Malawi’s Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act.

As of March 8, police returned three laptops and nine phones to the journalists, according to a journalist who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The journalist, whose phone has been returned, is concerned that the device has been compromised while in police custody and will no longer use it.

Another journalist, who also spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, said some MBC colleagues received email notifications about attempts to log into their Instagram and X accounts while their devices were in police custody.

Malawi police spokesperson Peter Kalaya told CPJ in a late February 2024 phone interview that the police investigation was being conducted in response to a legitimate complaint, and police had obtained a warrant before seizing and searching the devices. 

“The investigation is not targeting journalists, it is targeting people who we suspect to be responsible” for the Facebook page, Kalaya said, but he declined to explain how the police had determined which individuals were suspects. 

“We have a forensics laboratory and sometimes we use other institutions’ forensic laboratories,” Kalaya told CPJ, but declined to give specifics about the technologies used to search the journalists’ devices. “Our search in the gadgets is going to be restricted to those apps that we believe or that we suspect were used in the commission of the crime,” Kalaya told CPJ, adding that the journalists whose devices had been seized should trust the professionalism of the investigating officers. “Why should a police officer go to contacts, to [the] photo gallery when what he is looking for is not there, or if he does not suspect it will be there?” he said.

In January 2024, the local Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ-Malawi) reported that Malawian authorities had obtained the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), a powerful technology designed to access and extract information from electronic devices and sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite. The Malawi police sought to further expand its investigative capacity with similar tools, according to the report. In response to CPJ’s questions about which tools, including those sold by Cellebrite, police used to search the devices of MBC journalists, Kalaya declined to give specifics.

CPJ has previously documented the use of Cellebrite’s UFED by police in Botswana to search journalists’ phones and has raised the issue of privacy concerns when law enforcement seizes devices and has access to such technology. 

MBC director general George Kasakula declined to comment until the police investigation into the alleged spamming concludes at an unknown date.

On February 15, five police officers looking for Greyson Chapita, MBC’s suspended controller of news and programs, arrived at his daughter’s home. The officers told family members there to call Chapita and tell him that his daughter was sick to lure him there, the journalist told CPJ, adding that his family obliged, and he arrived shortly after. Once Chapita arrived, police officers told him that he was a suspect in a murder and requested to search his phone and laptop, but he initially refused.

Chapita told the officers that he would not comply until he verified that they were police officers, and he went with them to the local police station to confirm their identities. Once confirmed by a senior officer, Chapita returned with them to his home, where the officers showed him the same warrant citing MBC management’s complaint, and he opened his laptop and entered his password, he told CPJ. The officers then looked through his Facebook account for 30 minutes without further explanation as Chapita watched.

“[T]hey checked my Facebook account and took screenshots. They made me sign a document showing that they searched my laptop and did not find anything, so they didn’t take it. They couldn’t see my phone because it is not a smartphone,” the journalist added.

When asked about the police officers’ tactics used to summon Chapita and search his computer, Kalaya told CPJ that he could not comment on the specifics of the incident, but he said the journalist could file a complaint. 

“What I can assure you is that our investigators are very professional and whatever they are doing is very professional,” Kalaya said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Mlozoa had been assigned to cover an anti-government demonstration by a group calling itself Malawi First in the Mangochi district, about 150 miles southeast of the capital, Lilongwe, Gabriel Kamlomo, ZBS’ director of news and current affairs, told CPJ.

Police officers stopped Mlozoa as he photographed them arresting a demonstrator, seized the journalist’s phone, and deleted his photographs of the incident before returning his device, according to a news report and a statement by the Malawi chapter of regional press freedom group, Media Institute of Southern Africa.

“Authorities should hold accountable the Malawi police officers who forcibly deleted the photos of police conduct from journalist Raphael Mlozoa’s phone and ensure that such blunt censorship never happens again,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, in Nairobi. “Journalists in Malawi should be permitted to cover demonstrations and other events of public interest without fear of harassment or intimidation.”

Kamlomo told CPJ that ZBS filed a police complaint about the officer’s conduct toward Mlozoa.

CPJ’s calls and questions sent via messaging app to Malawi police spokesperson Peter Kalaya and Mangochi Police Station publicist Amina Tepani Daud received no response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Around 2:30 p.m. on August 25, Chalika, a reporter with privately owned Kasupe Radio, was photographing a scuffle between rival fans at Bingu National Stadium in the capital Lilongwe when he was approached by at least 15 people wearing merchandise of the Silver Strikers Football Club, one of the country’s top super league soccer clubs, according to Chalika, news reports, and a statement by the Malawi chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa. 

The supporters demanded he delete the photographs, and when he refused and gave his camera to a colleague who immediately left, they began punching and kicking Chalika all over his body, the journalist told CPJ.

Nearby police officers rescued Chalika from the crowd, Chalika said, adding that he had not filed a case with police on advice from his lawyer, who is drafting papers to sue the club for damages. Chalika was treated at a local hospital for bruises and a sprained ankle. 

“The Football Association of Malawi, as the national governing body of football, must ensure that it is not seen as condoning any violence on or outside the football pitch, especially when fans assault members of the press,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator in Durban, South Africa. “There is precedent worldwide for soccer clubs to be held responsible for their fans’ conduct, including the deduction of league points, and Malawian football authorities must act accordingly.”

In their statement, MISA demanded disciplinary action against the club’s supporters who attacked Chalika and against head coach Hendrik Pieter de Jongh, who called several questions asked by reporters at a post-match press conference “stupid.” 

A Silver Strikers media officer told CPJ via messaging app that MISA “handled the issue” but declined to comment further.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Gomezgani Zakazaka, the Football Association of Malawi’s communications and competitions manager, did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On the morning of May 17, political activists attacked Mzindiko, a photographer with the privately owned Times Group newspaper, while he covered a fight between supporters of the ruling Malawi Congress Party and its allied United Transformation Movement in the city of Blantyre, according to media reports, a statement by the Malawi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa regional press freedom group, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ.

About 15 people in MCP party regalia approached Mzindiko after he filmed a fistfight between MCP and UTM supporters and demanded he delete his photos and video. When the journalist refused, they slapped him, grabbed his crotch, stole his camera’s lens, and deleted footage from his laptop and camera memory card.

On May 19, the MCP and Information Minister Moses Kikuyu each issued apologies over the incident, according to news reports.

“Authorities must ensure that those who assaulted journalist Francis Mzindiko are arrested and prosecuted, in order to send an unequivocal message that violence against journalists will not be condoned in Malawi,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “While apologies are welcome, they cannot absolve those in authority from acting swiftly and decisively.”

Mzindiko told CPJ that his camera lens had not been returned to him as of May 24, and that his camera was not functioning properly following the attack. He filed a police report shortly after the incident, he said.

President Lazarous Chakwera, who leads the MCP, and Vice President Saulos Chilima, who leads the UTM, both attended the event where Mzindiko was attacked.

In his statement, Kikuyu noted that he apologized in his capacity as the country’s information minister, and not as an MCP official. In a separate statement signed by MCP Publicity Secretary Ezekiel Peter Ching’oma and reviewed by CPJ, the party apologized and promised to help police identify the perpetrators.

CPJ called Ching’oma and sent him questions via messaging app but did not receive any replies. Malawi Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya also did not reply to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

“Your people can’t take it anymore, Lord
In exchange for oil and gas they sell our country.”

These lines, translated from Portuguese, are from the song “Vendem o Pais,” “They Sell the Country,” by the late, great Mozambican hip hop artist Azagaia. Born Edson da Luz, he died on March 9th at the age of 38. He was a movement artist, empowering millions with songs challenging the elite and inspiring grassroots action. A frequent theme in his lyrics is the exploitation of Mozambique by extractive industries like oil and gas. Thousands poured into the streets on the news of his death, to honor his life and to protest the power structures he so consistently and eloquently criticized. The Mozambican government responded with a brutal crackdown, unleashing tear gas, rubber bullets, and beating and arresting protesters.

Azagaia’s death coincided with two events that reinforce central themes of his music. First, Cyclone Freddy, a world-record-breaking extreme storm, slammed Southern Africa not once but twice, wreaking devastation, killing over 500 people in Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar and displacing over one million people. And second, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, released its Sixth Synthesis Report, summarizing almost a decade of global scientific research on climate change and issuing its direst warnings yet on the urgency of immediate, concerted global climate action.

Cyclone Freddy was the longest-lived and highest-energy tropical cyclone in recorded history. The storm was named on February 6th, as it developed off the northwest coast of Australia. Freddy headed west over the Pacific Ocean, building force from the historically high ocean surface temperatures, slamming into the island nation of Madagascar on February 21st. After then spending five days inundating Mozambique, Freddy retreated to the waters offshore, again building strength. As police were suppressing the Azagaia protests, Freddy arrived again, pummeling Mozambique and southern Malawi for four days before dissipating. The World Food Program and other aid agencies are scrambling to reach people cut off by the torrential rain, flooding and mudslides.

Cyclone Freddy serves as a stark illustration of the warnings included in the new IPCC report. “The rate of temperature rise in the last half-century is the highest in 2,000 years,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said as the report was released. “Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.” The science is unequivocal: humans are causing a climate catastrophe, and our window to avoid irreversible damage is closing rapidly. Most importantly, people in poor nations, in the Global South, bear the brunt of climate disasters, but have contributed the least to global carbon emissions. This is the ongoing legacy of colonialism and resource extraction embedded in the lyrics of Azagaia.

“So many people within our countries, especially in Africa, are invisible, evoking pity when a deadly cyclone hits, forgotten the week after,” Dipti Bhatnagar, climate justice activist based in Mozambique, wrote in a piece eulogizing Azagaia. “As the crises deepen, people are going to get more and more incensed,” she said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “The youth are going to get more and more incensed. We need cultural icons like Azagaia. We need space. We need constructive ways for people to get involved, to be able to organize, to oppose the injustices that are happening. And the powerful know that.”

A new front to challenge entrenched power is being opened in the United States. Founded by author and climate activist Bill McKibben, Third Act seeks to inspire people 60 years and older to take action against climate change.

“Third Act recognizes that young people have been providing the climate leadership, young people and people from frontline communities, Indigenous communities,” McKibben said on Democracy Now! “What they lack sometimes is the structural power to force change at the pace that we need. Older people have structural power…There are 70 million Americans over the age of 60. That is a sleeping giant.”

This week, Third Act launched a National Day of Action to Stop Dirty Banks. Protests were held in at least 30 states, at major banks like Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America demanding they stop funding fossil fuel projects. “Here in D.C., for instance, the banks are going to be blockaded with people in rocking chairs,” McKibben explained. “Older people are sitting down today, but they’re also standing up in a way that they haven’t before.”

This latest IPCC report, Secretary General Guterres says, is “a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity.” For a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, it will take grassroots organizing and action. As Azagaia often declared, “POVO NO PODER! (Put the People in Power!)”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Denis Moynihan.

In a major new report released Monday, the United Nations is calling for immediate and drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in order to stop global warming. The “final warning” by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change comes as the death toll from Cyclone Freddy just swept through southeast Africa, killing hundreds of people and displacing hundreds of thousands more. Climate justice activist Dipti Bhatnagar with Friends of the Earth Mozambique describes it as “yet another reminder that climate impacts are not in the future but very much happening to our communities right now.” We also continue our conversation with environmental activists Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, and Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

As the death toll from Tropical Cyclone Freddy continues to rise, climate justice advocates are imploring the fossil fuel corporations most responsible for the destruction to reduce their planet-wrecking emissions, compensate victims, and fund rebuilding.

The intense and long-lasting storm—precisely the type of extreme weather event that scientists have warned is more likely due to unmitigated greenhouse gas pollution—has hammered the southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar in recent weeks. Flooding and mudslides have killed more than 300 people, injured hundreds of others, and displaced at least 20,000 households. Ongoing rainfall has complicated burial services and rescue efforts as hundreds remain missing.

The coal, oil, and gas firms that are the primary drivers of the climate emergency "should pay up for the damage," Greenpeace argued Wednesday.

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In a Wednesday statement, 350Africa.org regional director Landry Ninteretse said, "Disasters such as these are further evidence of the injustice suffered by the nations that contribute least to the climate crisis, as they bear the brunt of the crisis by way of worsening climate impacts."

"This situation calls for the world's biggest polluters like TotalEnergies to commit to significantly lowering their greenhouse gas emissions," said Ninteretse, who specifically called on Total's French executives to abandon the company's $20 billion fracked gas project in Mozambique.

Nintereste also urged "wealthy nations and development finance institutions such as the African Development Bank to deliver climate finance to help the most affected build resilience to impacts of the climate crisis."

"We express our sympathies to the communities and partners affected by this disaster and call on humanitarian agencies to move with speed to save lives," he added.

The United Nations and its partners have ramped up emergency support this week. The agency has rescued dozens of people and delivered medical supplies, food, shelter, and other necessities. Of particular concern is shoring up water and sanitation infrastructure to prevent the further spread of cholera.

Rebecca Adda-Dontoh, U.N. resident coordinator in Malawi, said Tuesday that Freddy has "created an unprecedented crisis" in the country, where the health sector "is already overwhelmed by the worst cholera outbreak in two decades."

As Al Jazeera reported, "Malawi last year reported cases of cholera after Cyclone Anna battered the south of the country causing extensive infrastructure damage and disruption of water and sanitation systems."

Speaking in New York on Wednesday, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that "we are mobilizing additional teams, but difficult weather conditions have hampered rescue efforts."

"This situation calls for the world's biggest polluters like TotalEnergies to commit to significantly lowering their greenhouse gas emissions."

Dujarric noted that the agency is "worried about the impact of heavy rains and flooding" in Mozambique, which is also grappling with a cholera outbreak.

"Large swaths of land are underwater, and roads are not passable—making it difficult for aid workers to carry out assessments," he added. "The immediate humanitarian impact and longer-term economic implications for Mozambique are enormous."

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Freddy may be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone in recorded history.

After developing off the coast of Australia on February 6, the cyclone crossed the entire South Indian Ocean, traveling nearly 5,000 miles before making landfall in Madagascar and Mozambique in late February. The storm then looped around and hit Mozambique again on Saturday before moving inland to Malawi. Torrential downpours, destructive winds, and storm surges have also pummeled Northeast Zimbabwe and Southeast Zambia.

"Freddy holds the record for most accumulated cyclone energy (ACE)—a measure based on a storm's wind strength over its lifetime—of any storm in the Southern Hemisphere and possibly worldwide," Al Jazeera reported. The WMO estimates that the storm has "generated about as much accumulated cyclone energy as an average full North Atlantic hurricane season."

In addition, the outlet continued, "Freddy appears to have broken the world record for the most bouts of rapid intensification, defined as an increase in wind speed of 80km (35 miles) per hour in a period of 24 hours."

As global warming causes sea levels to rise and ocean temperatures to increase, "heat energy from the water's surface is fueling stronger storms," Al Jazeera noted.

Citing the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, University of Sussex geography professor Melissa Lazenby told the outlet that "this type of extreme tropical cyclone event is not surprising due to previous predictions that cyclones will become more intense." She added that "more analysis would need to be done to deduce the reasoning behind its... longevity."

Fully aware that extracting and burning more coal, oil, and gas will exacerbate the deadly effects of the climate emergency, profit-hungry fossil fuel executives are nonetheless moving ahead with plans to expand drilling.

While COP27 delegates agreed to establish a loss and damage fund—after failing to commit to winding down the fossil fuels that are generating so much harm—previous efforts to increase climate aid from the Global North to the Global South have fallen far short of what's needed due to the stinginess of wealthy countries, especially the United States.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

On February 8, police in the capital Lilongwe summoned Mtenje via phone to appear the following day for questioning over a Maravi Post story she did not write or publish, according to news reports, a statement by the Malawi chapter of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a bail form that CPJ reviewed, and a CPJ interview with the journalist. When Mtenje arrived at the station the next day, police detained her for 12 hours and charged her with defamation and offensive communication following a complaint by National Intelligence Service Director General Dokani Ngwira.

“The detention, confiscation of her phone, and charging of Malawian journalist Dorica Mtenje following a complaint from the country’s intelligence chief about an article that was not bylined and that she did not write is a fishing expedition to intimidate the press,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “We urge Malawian authorities to immediately drop the charges against Mtenje and ensure that criminal defamation is repealed, in the same way that sedition and insulting the president are no longer crimes in Malawi.”  

On February 18, President Lazarus Chakwera assented to the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill of 2022, which repeals the crimes of sedition and insulting the president.

On February 9, Mtenje appeared at police headquarters in Lilongwe at around 8 a.m. and was formally charged and detained at about 5 p.m., according to a news report and the journalist. Mtenje said her mobile phone was confiscated but returned upon her release three hours later.

Her supervisor, Lloyd M’bwana, was also summoned for questioning over the same story but he did not appear, according to MISA, Mtenje, and M’bwana, who spoke to CPJ. M’bwana told CPJ he did not go because he did not receive an official summons, only a call from police.

Mtenje is charged with offensive communication, under to Section 87 of the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act, and defamation, under Section 200 of the country’s penal code.

If found guilty of offensive communication, Mtenje faces up to a year in prison or a fine of 1 million Malawian kwacha (US$975), while the defamation charge carries an undefined fine, a two-year imprisonment, or both.  

Mtenje told CPJ that she appeared before police on her own and was not accompanied by a lawyer. 

“I asked the officer why they summoned me after showing me the story I didn’t even write, but I was told they suspect that me and my boss could have written it,” Mtenje told CPJ. “They took away my phone…at some point, one officer went away with it. It has no password.”

Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu told CPJ he had secured Mtenje’s release and that her case was “closed.” However, the officer who handled the matter claimed to be unaware of the closure after her release, according to Mtenje.

When reached by CPJ via messaging app, Ngwira said he had not made any complaints against a journalist, but he alleged thata tabloid had been writing “lies against my person and the National Intelligence Service without even a single attempt to seek our side of whatever they write.” 

Ngwira said a police investigation was what led to the summoning and arrest of Mtenje. “I believe they are still investigating, and even for her to be released quickly was because MISA Malawi through their [chairperson] reached out,” he told CPJ.

Malawi Police Service spokesperson Peter Kalaya did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. He is quoted by the MISA statement as saying police were only acting on a complaint by the National Intelligence Service Director. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

On March 30, the privately owned news website Platform for Investigative Journalism, where Gondwe works as the managing director, published an article alleging that the country’s attorney general had approved payments to a businessman for contracts that were previously cancelled due to alleged fraud.

On Tuesday, April 5, police in the commercial capital, Blantyre, detained Gondwe for about six hours and demanded he reveal his sources for that article, according to news reports, a statement by the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa press freedom group, and the journalist and his colleague Golden Matonga, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Police also searched the PIJ’s office and confiscated Gondwe’s cellphone and laptop, forced him to disclose his passwords, and then returned his devices the following day, according to the journalist.

“Malawian authorities must respect journalist Gregory Gondwe’s right to cover corruption allegations freely, stop harassing him and his family, and drop any attempt to force him to reveal his confidential sources, who he is ethically bound to protect,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “The police should cease all attempts to criminalize investigative journalism and whistleblowing, and authorities should overhaul laws that are an impediment to press freedom.”

After the March 30 article was published, Gondwe said that Attorney General Thabo Nyirenda had asked him to disclose his sources and, when the journalist refused, said he would get the information by other means.

On Monday, police called Gondwe’s younger sister while she was traveling and told her to abandon her trip so they could question her; when his sister submitted to questioning, officers asked about Gondwe’s whereabouts, saying they wanted the journalist to lead them to a suspect in a crime, the journalist told CPJ.

Gondwe said that when he called the police and asked how they acquired his sister’s phone number, an officer said they had accessed their phone records, and reiterated that they wanted to speak with him about a criminal suspect.

The following day, Gondwe met a group of police officers at PIJ’s office, he said. He told CPJ he offered to bring the officers inside the office, but they declined and brought him to a nearby car, introduced him to other police officers, and showed him a court sanctioned warrant to search the premises and confiscate electronic devices in pursuit of the source for that March 30 story.

Gondwe told the police he would only speak to them in the presence of a lawyer; the officers proceeded to search the PIJ’s office and brought Gondwe to a local police station where he was held for about six hours, questioned in the presence of his lawyer, and then released without charge, he said.

When police returned his devices the following day, Gondwe said he could see that some of his emails and WhatsApp messages had been read.

“I am not sure of how much information they mined from the confiscated gadgets. Even when I am in the process of replacing them, I really don’t feel safe,” he told CPJ.

Gondwe’s lawyer, Joseph Lihoma, told CPJ by messaging app that his client had not been charged, but police were still investigating the case.

The warrant for the April 5 search, which CPJ reviewed, states that Gondwe is accused of spamming, pertaining to the illegal transmission of information online, under Section 91 of the Electronic Transaction and Cyber Security Act of 2016, which carries a fine of 2 million Malawian kwacha (about US$2,500) or imprisonment of up to five years for convictions.

Nyirenda told CPJ via messaging app that he had apologized for Gondwe’s detention and questioning, and that he had no idea police were going to detain the journalist and confiscate his devices.

When asked about Gondwe’s claim that Nyirenda had threatened to find other means to disclose the journalist’s sources, Nyirenda said that was “water under the bridge.”

In a statement, the Media Institute of Southern Africa also said that Nyirenda had apologized, and that he had committed to a government review of archaic laws that restricted media freedom.

Nyirenda told CPJ that he did not have the power to make police drop their investigation into Gondwe, saying, “All I can do as attorney general is to appeal to them to drop those investigations and allow the press to enjoy their freedom.”

Police spokesperson James Kadadzera said in statement that Gondwe had not been arrested but had  been ”interviewed” in connection to an ongoing investigation into that news article and other related issues.

Kadadzera told CPJ via messaging app that he could not disclose further details about the case to avoid jeopardizing the legal process. He said he was unaware of Gondwe’s suspicions that his devices were tampered with while in police custody. 

Chief government spokesperson Gospel Kazako said the government would investigate the circumstances of Gondwe’s detention, according to reports.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On March 30, the privately owned news website Platform for Investigative Journalism, where Gondwe works as the managing director, published an article alleging that the country’s attorney general had approved payments to a businessman for contracts that were previously cancelled due to alleged fraud.

On Tuesday, April 5, police in the commercial capital, Blantyre, detained Gondwe for about six hours and demanded he reveal his sources for that article, according to news reports, a statement by the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa press freedom group, and the journalist and his colleague Golden Matonga, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Police also searched the PIJ’s office and confiscated Gondwe’s cellphone and laptop, forced him to disclose his passwords, and then returned his devices the following day, according to the journalist.

“Malawian authorities must respect journalist Gregory Gondwe’s right to cover corruption allegations freely, stop harassing him and his family, and drop any attempt to force him to reveal his confidential sources, who he is ethically bound to protect,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “The police should cease all attempts to criminalize investigative journalism and whistleblowing, and authorities should overhaul laws that are an impediment to press freedom.”

After the March 30 article was published, Gondwe said that Attorney General Thabo Nyirenda had asked him to disclose his sources and, when the journalist refused, said he would get the information by other means.

On Monday, police called Gondwe’s younger sister while she was traveling and told her to abandon her trip so they could question her; when his sister submitted to questioning, officers asked about Gondwe’s whereabouts, saying they wanted the journalist to lead them to a suspect in a crime, the journalist told CPJ.

Gondwe said that when he called the police and asked how they acquired his sister’s phone number, an officer said they had accessed their phone records, and reiterated that they wanted to speak with him about a criminal suspect.

The following day, Gondwe met a group of police officers at PIJ’s office, he said. He told CPJ he offered to bring the officers inside the office, but they declined and brought him to a nearby car, introduced him to other police officers, and showed him a court sanctioned warrant to search the premises and confiscate electronic devices in pursuit of the source for that March 30 story.

Gondwe told the police he would only speak to them in the presence of a lawyer; the officers proceeded to search the PIJ’s office and brought Gondwe to a local police station where he was held for about six hours, questioned in the presence of his lawyer, and then released without charge, he said.

When police returned his devices the following day, Gondwe said he could see that some of his emails and WhatsApp messages had been read.

“I am not sure of how much information they mined from the confiscated gadgets. Even when I am in the process of replacing them, I really don’t feel safe,” he told CPJ.

Gondwe’s lawyer, Joseph Lihoma, told CPJ by messaging app that his client had not been charged, but police were still investigating the case.

The warrant for the April 5 search, which CPJ reviewed, states that Gondwe is accused of spamming, pertaining to the illegal transmission of information online, under Section 91 of the Electronic Transaction and Cyber Security Act of 2016, which carries a fine of 2 million Malawian kwacha (about US$2,500) or imprisonment of up to five years for convictions.

Nyirenda told CPJ via messaging app that he had apologized for Gondwe’s detention and questioning, and that he had no idea police were going to detain the journalist and confiscate his devices.

When asked about Gondwe’s claim that Nyirenda had threatened to find other means to disclose the journalist’s sources, Nyirenda said that was “water under the bridge.”

In a statement, the Media Institute of Southern Africa also said that Nyirenda had apologized, and that he had committed to a government review of archaic laws that restricted media freedom.

Nyirenda told CPJ that he did not have the power to make police drop their investigation into Gondwe, saying, “All I can do as attorney general is to appeal to them to drop those investigations and allow the press to enjoy their freedom.”

Police spokesperson James Kadadzera said in statement that Gondwe had not been arrested but had  been ”interviewed” in connection to an ongoing investigation into that news article and other related issues.

Kadadzera told CPJ via messaging app that he could not disclose further details about the case to avoid jeopardizing the legal process. He said he was unaware of Gondwe’s suspicions that his devices were tampered with while in police custody. 

Chief government spokesperson Gospel Kazako said the government would investigate the circumstances of Gondwe’s detention, according to reports.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On the morning of June 30, police officers beat and briefly detained Oliver Malibisa, a reporter with the local Likoma Community Radio broadcaster, as he tried to cover a student demonstration at Likoma Secondary School in central Malawi, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.

“The assault and detention of journalist Oliver Malibisa by Malawi police was an attack on press freedom, and impunity for such acts sends an even more worrying message about journalist safety in the country,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York  “Journalists must be free to report on issues of public interest, like protests, without fear of violence or harassment.”

Malibisa told CPJ that an officer named Prosecutor Nyirenda hit him in the chest with a gun and told him to stop filming the demonstration.

Malibisa told CPJ that he continued filming, and then about five other officers “joined in harassing me. They started dragging me while shouting, ‘You are stupid, why are you here? Give us your phone.’ I complied and gave them the phone.”

The officers used pepper spray on Malibisa and drove him to the Likoma Police Station, where he was held for two hours, he said. He was released without charge, and his phone was returned on the order of the senior officer at the station, according to Malibisa and a statement posted on Facebook by the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), a regional media freedom organization.

Malibisa told CPJ that while he was in detention, he asked to be able to use his phone to contact Likoma Community Radio manager Davie Kacholola or MISA-Malawi, but the police ignored his requests. 

Kacholola told CPJ via messaging app that “the matter was sorted out, everything is normal,” but he did not elaborate when asked for more details. Malibisa told CPJ he wanted an apology from the police.

Malawi Police Service spokesperson James Kadadzera did not respond to CPJ’s phone calls or questions sent via messaging app. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Nyirenda.

Previously, in April, Malawi police briefly detained Nyasa Times news website reporter Watipaso Mzungu and Joy Radio reporter Enock Balakasi, as CPJ documented at the time.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The southern African nation is rolling out the shots in an unusual pilot program along with Kenya and Ghana. Unlike established vaccines that offer near-complete protection, this new one is only about 40% effective. But experts say it’s worth a try as progress against malaria stalls: Resistance to treatment is growing and the global drop in cases has leveled off.

With the vaccine, the hope is to help small children through the most dangerous period of their lives. Spread by mosquito bites, malaria kills more than 400,000 people every year, two-thirds of them under 5 and most in Africa.

Seven-month-old Charity Nangware received a shot on a rainy December day at a health clinic in the town of Migowi. She watched curiously as the needle slid into her thigh, then twisted up her face with a howl.

“I’m very excited about this,” said her mother, Esther Gonjani, who herself gets malaria’s aches, chills and fever at least once a year and loses a week of field work when one of her children is ill. “They explained it wasn’t perfect, but I feel secure it will relieve the pain.”

There is little escaping malaria — “malungo” in the local Chichewa language — especially during the five-month rainy season. Stagnant puddles, where mosquitoes breed, surround the homes of brick and thatch and line the dirt roads through tea plantations or fields of maize and sugar cane.

In the village of Tomali, the nearest health clinic is a two-hour bike ride away. The longer it takes to get care, the more dangerous malaria can be. Teams from the clinic offer basic medical care during visits once or twice a month, bringing the malaria shot and other vaccines in portable coolers.

Treating malaria takes up a good portion of their time during the rainy season, according to Daisy Chikonde, a local health worker.

“If this vaccine works, it will reduce the burden,” she said.

Resident Doriga Ephrem proudly said her 5-month-old daughter, Grace, didn’t cry when she got the malaria shot.

When she heard about the vaccine, Ephrem said her first thought was “protection is here.” Health workers explained, however, that the vaccine is not meant to replace antimalarial drugs or the insecticide-treated bed net she unfolds every night as the sun sets and mosquitoes rise from the shadows.

“We even take our evening meals inside the net to avoid mosquitoes,” she said.

It took three decades of research to develop the new vaccine, which works against the most common and deadly of the five parasite species that cause malaria. The parasite’s complex life cycle is a huge challenge. It changes forms in different stages of infection and is far harder to target than germs.

“We don’t have any vaccines against parasites in routine use. This is uncharted territory,” said Ashley Birkett, who directs PATH’s Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a nonprofit that helped drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline develop the shot, brand-named Mosquirix.

The bite of an infected mosquito sends immature parasites called sporozoites into the bloodstream. If they reach the liver, they’ll mature and multiply before spewing back into the blood to cause malaria’s debilitating symptoms. At that point, treatment requires medicines that kill the parasites.

Mosquirix uses a piece of the parasite — a protein found only on sporozoites’ surface — in hopes of blocking the liver stage of infection. When a vaccinated child is bitten, the immune system should recognize the parasite and start making antibodies against it.

Scientists also are searching for next-generation alternatives. In the pipeline is an experimental vaccine made of whole malaria parasites dissected from mosquitoes’ salivary glands but weakened so they won’t make people sick. Sanaria Inc. has been testing its vaccine in adults, and is planning a large, late-stage study in Equatorial Guinea’s Bioko Island.

And the U.S. National Institutes of Health soon will start initial tests of whether injecting people periodically with lab-made antibodies, rather than depending on the immune system to make them, could offer temporary protection during malaria season. Think of them as “potentially short-term vaccines,” NIH’s Dr. Robert Seder told a recent meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

For now, only babies in parts of Malawi, Kenya and Ghana are eligible for the Mosquirix vaccine. After the vaccine was approved in 2015, the World Health Organization said it first wanted a pilot roll-out to see how well it worked in a few countries — in real-world conditions — before recommending that the vaccine be given more widely across Africa.

“Everyone is looking forward to getting it,” said Temwa Mzengeza, who oversees Malawi’s vaccine programs. Those eager for the shots include her husband, whom she had to stop from trying to get them, she said.

Mzengeza used to come down with malaria several times a year until she started following her own advice to sleep under a net every night. Unlike many other kinds of infections, people can get malaria repeatedly, building up only a partial immunity.

In the pilot program that began last year, 360,000 children in the three countries are meant to be vaccinated annually. The first dose is given at about age 5 months and the final, fourth booster near the child’s second birthday.

Experts say it is too early to know how well the vaccine is working. They’re watching for malaria deaths, severe infections and cases of meningitis, something reported during studies but not definitively linked to the vaccine.

“To do something completely new for malaria is exciting,” said researcher Don Mathanga, who is leading the evaluation in Malawi.

The rainy season has brought new challenges, making some rural roads impassable and complicating efforts to track down children due for a shot. So far in Malawi, the first dose reached about half of the children targeted, about 35,000. That dropped to 26,000 for the second dose and 20,000 for the third.

That’s not surprising for a new vaccine, Mzengeza said. “It will pick up with time.”

At the health clinic in Migowi in Malawi’s southern highlands, workers see signs of hope. Henry Kadzuwa explains the vaccine to mothers waiting at the clinic. He said there was a drop in malaria cases to 40 in the first five months of the program, compared to 78 in the same period in 2018.

Even though he wishes his 3-year-old daughter, Angel, could receive the vaccine, “it’s protecting my community. It also makes my work easier,” Kadzuwa said. The Migowi area has one of the country’s highest rates of malaria, and a worn paper register in the clinic’s laboratory lists scores of cases.

At the clinic, Agnes Ngubale said she had malaria several years ago and wants to protect her 6-month-old daughter, Lydia, from the disease.

“I want her to be healthy and free,” she said. “I want her to be a doctor.”

And she has memorized the time for Lydia’s second dose: “Next month, same date.”

Neergaard reported from Washington.