Johannesburg, South Africa, 22 March 2012. The space for civil society to operate independently in Malawi is sharply shrinking warns international civil society network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. In a warning sign of an impending crackdown, members of civil society and the media are being openly intimidated to prevent them from criticising the government.
On 8 March 2012, the Malawi President's Office issued a public statement warning civil society organisations (CSOs) and media houses against insulting President Bingu wa Mutharika. Among other things, the statement notes: "It is a pity that some civil society organisations and media houses find demeaning, insulting and accusing the President as a scoop to merit themselves. It should be obvious that such insults, accusations and derogatory statements and ill comments about our Head of State are but a shame in the eyes of the international community." The statement threatens dissenters that the government "monitors carefully" social networks that are "hostile and probably careless in demeaning the State President." It also finds "unacceptable" phone-in radio programmes that offer a "platform for callers to castigate or insult the Head of State."
"Malawi's constitution guarantees the freedoms of opinion and expression. For the President's Office to be issuing statements warning against expressions of public dissent is patently unconstitutional," says Mandeep Tiwana, Policy and Advocacy Manager at CIVICUS. "Rather than issuing threats of active persecution, the government should accept civil society and media critiques of official actions as an essential and healthy component of democracy."Furthermore, the statement undermines the independence of civil society by suggesting that CSOs should not receive donor money to work against their own head of state and government. It also threatens that the laws of Malawi provide for total respect and protection of the head of state, and that any utterances or writings showing disrespect to the President are liable to criminal punishment.
The warning from the President's Office comes in the wake of a series of challenges to civil society space and media freedoms in Malawi since last year. In July 2011 at least 19 people were killed in a government sponsored crackdown on demonstrators protesting against economic hardships and poor governance. On 4 March, at a political rally, the President reiterated a statement he first made on 3 February 2012 urging his party members and supporters to stop any civil society demonstrations expressing dissent against him or his government.
In the wake of this a number of attacks have been observed; on 13 February, Ralph Kasambara, a human rights lawyer and former Attorney General of Malawi, was arrested following an attempt by a group of people to firebomb his office. Despite being granted bail, he was rearrested a few hours after his release in what appears be retaliation for his role in representing several CSOs in court cases and for calling for the President's resignation in the media. Mr Kasambara was released only on 22 February 2012. Human rights organisations have also reported overt and covert forms of intimidation by state agents.
CIVICUS urges the Southern African Development Community and Malawi's international partners to engage with the Malawian government to ensure that it upholds its constitutional and international law obligations to respect the rights of civil society and the media.
