The Vice Chairperson of the National Governing Council of the Media Council of Malawi, Mr. Emmanual Ted Nandolo,

The Interim Chairperson of Ethics Complaints and Disciplinary Committee, and Managing Director of Capital Radio, Mr. Al Osman,

The Executive Director of the Media Council of Malawi, Mr. Baldwin Chiyamwaka,

Senior Government Officials present,

Leaders of the Media Houses of Malawi,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. Indeed, it is my great honor to be invited to attend the Opening of this Media Executives Conference on the Promotion of the Media Code of Ethics and Mediation Procedures. First of all, let me extend my warm congratulations to the Media Council of Malawi for the successful opening and the conference.

I also wish to appreciate the Media Council of Malawi for its efforts in promoting professionalism and self-regulation among the media houses in Malawi. I am definitely sure that the revision of the Media Code of Ethics and the development of the Mediation and Complaints Procedures, in particular, are of great significance to the long-term healthy development of the media industry in Malawi and such efforts will go a long way beyond themselves but to further promote social stability, justice, progress and national prosperity.

As a loyal and sincere reader and listener of the Malawian media in the past two years, I wish to take this opportunity to share some ideas with and be humble to learn from the friends present here today.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is known to us all that Media plays vital roles in any society, and is considered as the main promoter of democracy, human rights, good governance and national development. Nowadays, with the rapid scientific and technological progress and easier information transformation and access, media is playing more and more important roles in our social, economic and political life. Among so many roles of the media, in my view, the most important ones could be mainly defined by two words.

One is “bridge”. Media shall act as a bridge of communication between the government and the people in the process of national development. The media shall inform and explain the policies and development strategies of the government to the public timely and accurately, to guide the people where to go and how to get there so as to build a national consensus on these two fundamental issues on the national development and mobilize the people to be united and fight towards the common direction against poverty for the common prosperity.

China has 56 ethnic groups and over 1.32 billion people. But we have reached a national consensus on Where for China to go and how to get there. When you ask the Chinese people where for China to go? The people will answer you clearly and definitely that while maintaining political and social stability, focus on economic development. And how to get there? The answer is to keep reforming and open up to the outside world. You can imagine that such a huge developing country like China, without such a national consensus, could not achieve great success in the past 30 years’ social and economic development. And in this process, we cannot overemphasize the critical and positive roles of the Chinese media.

On the other hand, media shall reflect the public concerns, opinions and reactions to the policies of government so as to make sure that the voice of the people will be heard clearly and comprehensively by the government and the social situations will be well known timely. It’s the media that makes the two-way communication between the government and people a reality. Only under such a circumstance could the government serve the people and the fundamental interest of the nation timely and properly .

The other word is “watchdog”. Media shall follow and oversee the actions and performances of the government and political parties closely as a watchdog so as to examine whether or not they follow the value and principles of democracy, human rights and good governance, and make sure that their polices, national development strategies and performances are in line with the fundamental interest of the people and the nation.

To carry their duties, the Media is expected to cover things both positive and negative and tell the truth from the facts. The Media is expected not only to speak out the problems related to public welfare and public concern, expose things people and government did not and cannot see, but also encourage the positive things and discourage the negative ones, promote the social justice and equality, and make sure that the fruits of the national development shall be shared by all the people instead of few interested groups.

Mr. Cairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since 1895, when the first newspaper was established in Malawi, the media industry of Malawi has grown up step by step, and a free, independent media network of newspapers, radios, TV stations and internet has been established. Media has become a vital part of the civil society in Malawi, contributing a lot in promoting good governance, human rights, democracy and national development. And I sincerely hope that the Malawian Media will pay more attention to the national development, especially to the two fundamental issues on where for Malawi to go and how to get there while fulfilling their lofty missions.

In my view, the main social contradiction in Malawi is that the social and economic productivity is far from enough to meet the growing demands of the people materially and spiritually instead of political fighting and ideological conflicts. Therefore, after the election, the top priorities of the government and any political party and the nation as a whole shall focus on national development to increase productivity to meet the growing demands of the people materially and spiritually, which is the only way to solve all the social problems you are facing fundamentally and comprehensively.

We are very happy to see that H.E. President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi has got a great vision to develop Malawi, which is to transform Malawi from a consuming and importing country to a producing and exporting one. The vision is so great enough to show us where for Malawi to go, but the challenge is how to get there, who and how to educate the people to fully understand it, and mobilize the people to implement it.

I am definitely sure that the media can and must play more positive roles in building a national consensus on where for Malawi to go and how to get there.

Mr. Cairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Media code of ethics is very important for any media in the world to carry their duties objectively and professionally. Accountability and responsibility shall be universally recognized as the key elements of the media code of ethics.

For the accountability and responsibility, media shall inform the public accurately and comment fairly on matters of public concerns. Media shall cover things both negative and positive, and encourage the positive while discouraging the negative so as for the public to seek truth from the facts.

[Last year, a journalist from one of the local newspapers wrote an article which said that China and Malawi had signed a free trade agreement, and this agreement would result in dumping. The truth is that according to the special preferential tariff treatment China granted to Malawi, some Malawian products will enjoy duty free to Chinese markets. This is a unilateral arrangement by the Chinese government to help Malawi attract more investments to Malawi. But unfortunately, the report of that journalist obviously called white black, misled the readers and indeed harmed the friendly feeling of the Chinese people.]

For the accountability and responsibility, media shall be impartial. Any comment shall base on the fact itself without any political bias. Western media such as CNN, BBC and Reuters always praise themselves free and impartial. But they keep their own political bias, and always watch other countries like China with colored spectacles. For example, Dalai Lama is a separatist who dreams to split Tibet from China, and is responsible for many violent activities in Tibet. But the westerners and their media portray Dalai Lama as a peaceful religious leader. They actually know the truth in Tibet and who Dalai Lama is. But due to their cold war mindset and the strategy to restrain China from development, they twist the truth from the facts. They are free to say, but lose their accountability and the trust of the Chinese people and friends who knows China.

Unfortunately, the local media in Malawi sometimes prefers to print the news from western media to spoil the image of China while they know nothing about the news itself. China is not a perfect country but is opening to the world media. We understand very well that China still has a long way to improve and develop herself. But for the issues of Dalai Lama and Taiwan, the facts are clear and well known to the Chinese people. If you are interested, you are free to tour to China to see by yourselves instead of translating news from western media.

I highly appreciate that the Media Council of Malawi has tried very hard to promote professionalism in the Media industry by setting professional standards in the interest of the public and the nation of Malawi and uphold the values of accountability, integrity and excellence. I am also delighted to see that under the leadership of the Media Council of Malawi, the media houses of Malawi have started a campaign on promoting the Media Code of Ethics. I would like to appeal to all the media houses, public or private to follow the Media Code of Ethics adopted by the Council so as to serve better the fundamental interest of the nation and people of Malawi.

Mr. Cairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a new friend and development partner of Malawi, I am very proud to say that the two years’ diplomatic relations have yielded so fruitful results, which are so visible and tangible. The Parliament Building Complex is about to be completed. The Five Star Hotel and International Conference Center and the Karonga-Chitipa Road have been under constructions. The Projects of the National Stadium and the University of Science and Technology will be commenced as schedule. And most importantly, the mutual understanding and mutual friendship between our two peoples and nations have been growing from nowhere to somewhere and getting stronger and stronger.

In this process, I cannot overemphasize the critical roles and contributions of the Malawian media. It is you who promote the mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples and governments to such a new height. Therefore, let me sincerely say thanks a lot to you all.

In the past two years, the Chinese government has invited about 33 journalists from various media of Malawi to visit China, and this year, more than 10 journalists will be invited to visit China. I am very happy to say that the Chinese government has done something helpful for the capacity building of the Malawian media. The Chinese Embassy here and myself have been always at the service of all the media houses of Malawi and will maintain and strengthen our existing cordial and cooperative relations.

Finally, I would like to ensure you all that China will continue to support the capacity building of Malawian media, continue to strengthen the all-round and win-win cooperation between China and Malawi to benefit our two peoples and two nations. It is my sincere hope that the media of Malawi will continue to promote our mutual understanding and friendship so as to seek our common prosperity.

Thank you for your attention.