Media rights advocacy organisations – MISA Malawi Chapter and Media Council of Malawi (MCM) have called for immediate suspension of revocation of broadcasting licences by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).

The two organisations made the call yesterday Tuesday in Lilongwe on the sidelines of a separate interface with the Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communications at Parliament Building.

According to MISA Malawi Chairperson Teresa Ndanga, the revocation of the licences is too drastic and apparent violation of freedom of expression in the country.”

MISA Malawi reiterates its stand that the revocation of licences is too drastic and can be construed as a systematic violation of freedom of expression in the country.

“We acknowledged that the broadcasters, as Malawians in other businesses, have an obligation to pay the licence and other business fees.

We, however, implored that instead of shutting down stations there is a need for Macra to engage the stations for a win-win agreement,” said Ndanga.

Concurring with Ndanga, Chairperson for the MCM Wisdom Chimgwede said there is need to restructure the licence fees.

He said: “We are advocating for restructure of licence fees because we reckon the fact that $ 5, 000 for private radio stations is a lot of money, it’s not change and we would want to go to a point where stakeholders sat down around the table and restructure these fee level.”

Responding to the calls, the Committee through its vice chairperson Susan Dossi said the committee will engage Macra on the issues raised to find amicable solution.

“We will sit down with Macra and find solution on how we can make sure that maybe they can reduce license fees if need be but also on how best we can forge ahead as a country to make sure that the media houses are able to pay licence fees in time so that we shouldn’t face any closure of the media houses,” Dossi said.

According to Macra, at least 23 radio broadcasting stations and six television stations may have their licences revoked by the end of this year.