{"id":5139,"date":"2016-11-18T17:47:51","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T17:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2016-11-21T07:50:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T07:50:26","slug":"malawi-journalists-urged-to-hold-government-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/11\/18\/malawi-journalists-urged-to-hold-government-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"MALAWI: Journalists urged to hold government accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>By Bartholomew Boaz, Montfort Media<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Catholic Church in Malawi wants journalists to ensure elected leaders are transparent and accountable to the public.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking during the 20th anniversary celebrations of <em>Together Youth Magazine<\/em>, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Secretary General Reverend Fr. Henry Saindi said press freedom is necessary in a democratic society as it ensures that democratic governments are accountable to the people who voted it into power.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cFree press informs voters about what is happening in their government and what is going on in the world around them. A free press is essential to democracy, it shines a light on corruption and is the champion of the disadvantaged and the voiceless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5140\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5140\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5140\" src=\"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rev.-Fr.-Henry-Saindi.jpg\" alt=\"Rev. Fr. Henry Saindi,  ECM Secretary General\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 8pt;\"><strong>Rev. Fr. Henry Saindi,<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 8pt;\"><strong>ECM Secretary General<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fr Saindi, a journalist himself, called on the media to uphold professional ethics by reporting facts that have been verified and balanced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cMembers of the media must do their part and respect the important public trust they hold. If we don\u2019t have credibility, people won\u2019t believe what we write, they won\u2019t trust our analysis, they won\u2019t value our viewpoint,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Together magazine, published by Catholic-owned Montfort Media Ltd, started in 1996, two years after the country embraced multiparty democracy. The magazine was started to act as a forum where young people could share their joys and problems.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Montfort Media managing director, Fr Piergiorgio Gamba said the magazine belongs to the youth hence asked them to make us of the magazine to the fullest and take it to another level.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis magazine is their only platform where the youth can express their views and eventually contribute to the development of the country,\u201d said Fr Gamba.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Montfort Media Ltd also publishes The Lamp magazine, vernacular newspaper Mkwaso and other several publications. It is the media house that published the 1992 Pastoral Letter \u2018Living Our Faith\u2019, a letter that changed the political landscape as it facilitated the transition from one party to multiparty system of government<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">~<em>End<\/em>~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bartholomew Boaz, Montfort Media The Catholic Church in Malawi wants journalists to ensure elected&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}