By Wezzie Gausi:
The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has confirmed receiving a formal request to investigate the welfare of lowly ranked journalists working in privately owned media outlets across the country.
In an interview, MHRC Executive Secretary Habiba Osman said the commission is treating the matter with the urgency it deserves, stressing that the issue falls under its constitutional mandate to protect and promote human rights.
“We have received the complaint and we are going to look into it. Once everything has been finalised, we will inform the public of our findings as we always do,” Osman said.
The petition was submitted by Davie Danford Mchinga, a concerned media scholar, who decried the poor working conditions and meagre salaries of junior journalists in some media houses.
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In his letter addressed to the Commissioner responsible for Civil, Political and Cultural Rights, Mchinga is urging MHRC to take concrete steps to address what he described as a human rights issue.
“It is disheartening that journalists are reduced to beggars, surviving on chipondamthengo, a term used to describe token payments or incentives offered by news sources for coverage,” Mchinga says.
He references a 2013 study titled Starving the Messenger, which revealed that most journalists in Malawi were “grossly underpaid, far below the monthly living wage.”
The letter has further called on MHRC to investigate whether media owners are complying with labour laws, including proper remuneration, and to engage institutions like Media Institute of Southern Africa Malawi and the Media Council of Malawi on the protection of journalists’ welfare.
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Mchinga also proposes the re-establishment of the Journalists Union of Malawi and the creation of a trust fund to support journalists in times of need.
He adds that despite the crucial role journalists play in informing and educating the public, many remain unprotected and exploited by their employers.
“Journalists are the engine of our information ecosystem and their welfare must always be prioritised and protected,” he says.
