Community broadcasting in Malawi: which way forward?

This document is a report of a field study of community broadcasting in Malawi commissioned by AMARC Africa. The purpose of the study was to provide a current country-level state of play for community radio including the country economic, political and cultural context, the communications environment, the broadcast legislative framework, the state of the broadcasting sector, and an assessment of its strategic priorities for future development. The study was carried out between December 2004 and February 2005.

Two case examples of community radios were the focus of this study: Dzimwe Radio at Monkey Bay in the southern district of Mangochi, and Radio Alinafe in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. Dzimwe, established by a group of predominantly middle class professional women, is in a rural setting, located in a village community. Radio Alinafe was established by the Catholic Church and is located in a religious setting and in town. The target audiences of the two radios are therefore different. The same applies to their programming approaches. Much as Dzimwe and Radio Alinafe received special attention, throughout this document reference is made also to other community radios in the country.

This report is divided into five main sections as follows: 

1. Outline of the contextual background to community broadcasting in Malawi with much focus on the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the country in order to highlight the context within which the issues of communication in general, and those of community broadcasting in particular, need to be understood.
2. Description of Malawi’s communication landscape, focusing on telecommunications and internet, as well as print and electronic media. Special attention is paid to public and private broadcasting services in the country.
3. Report on the legal and regulatory framework for broadcasting in Malawi. Special attention is paid to the work of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) and its enabling law, the Malawi Communications Act.
4. Community broadcasting – the policy, legal and regulatory environment for community broadcasting.
5. Strategic priorities of the community.