NPC challenges MW media to provide positive coverage

Malawi: The National Planning Commission - NPC - has challenged the local media to report positively on Malawi's development.

Dr. Thomas Munthali, Director General of the Commission, stated on Wednesday during an online media orientation on the Malawi 2063 first ten years implementation plan (MIP-1), the Covid-19 social-economic recovery plan (SERP), and the Malawi secondary cities plan (MSCP), that because the institution intends to set milestones, the media plays a critical role in ensuring that such plans are positively reported to the general public.

"You are not the fourth estate for nothing. You are there to hold us accountable. Not all the masses out there will understand the set goals and the technicalities of the Malawi 2063. So, you are there to help them understand that by reporting positively, and by tracking our progress," said Munthali.

While echoing similar sentiments, Shigeki Komatsubara, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stated that development occurs when the media is frequently engaged because it serves as a watchdog, gatekeeper, and agenda-setter.

Komatsubara said: "The media has a greater role to play as it gets the messages and shares them with the wider audience for the sake of informing the masses well and enabling them to make the right decisions. So, the media has to be well informed to impart others with balanced information."

However, one of the meeting's participants, James Chavula, a senior reporter for Nation Publication Limited (NPL), asked the commission's management to work apolitically, claiming that political interference causes public institutions to fail to achieve their set goals and objectives.

The Malawi Government launched the MW's first 10-year implementation plan in 2021, as part of the country's new medium-term development strategy, which will run from 2021 to 2030.

It replaces the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III and aims to assist the country in transitioning to a middle-income economy and achieving the majority of its goals by 2030.