Malawi Media Advocacy Group Concerned after Closure of Media Houses
Malawi’s government has closed three television stations and six radio stations for failing to pay annual license fees. The country’s media authority is expected to revoke the licenses of up to 30 broadcasting outlets by the end of the year. A local media advocacy group says the action is ill-advised and unfair.
Mandy Pondani, vice chairperson of the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Malawi (MISA-Malawi) told VOA the shutdowns are shrinking the media space and washing away freedoms and democratic gains attained over the last thirty years.
She said Malawi’s Communication Regulatory Authority, or MACRA, should consider the economic impact of the closures.
“We are looking at an economy that is not doing well,” Pondani said. “You can agree with me that in Malawi now almost every business has been affected. And obviously media institutions have been making a lot of money. And we are also coming from the pandemic which almost shut down the institutions. So, we thought maybe MACRA would have been considerate enough in issues like those.”
The affected media houses are Rainbow Television, Angaliba Television, Ufulu Television, Angaliba FM, Capital Radio, Sapitwa FM, Joy Radio, Ufulu FM and Galaxy FM.
Recent notices from MACRA show that in total, licenses for 23 radio stations and six television stations may be revoked by the end of the year.
Some stations paid their fees but are still being shut down.
Aubrey Kusakala, station manager for Rainbow Television, said his station was closed despite settling its $10,000 bill.
He feels the matter is politically motivated.
“Because we are looking at how we have been treated,” he said. “We made a payment on the 20th of June. They withdrew that payment almost two months later, meaning to us that they were not interested in the money. They were interested in our closure. Some of the information we have gathered clearly shows that the government through MACRA did not want us to exist on the market.”
“What is happening now is unprecedented,” said Pondani. “In the 50 year-plus of independence for Malawi, we have never seen a regime shut down media houses as this regime is doing. And it is denting and not reflecting well on the administration. If truth is to be told everybody knows the role the media played for this administration to be in power. And then to be going through this treatment it really doesn’t feel well, it doesn’t feel nice.”
MISA-Malawi said the shutdowns have eliminated 250 jobs held by media professionals and support staff and that another 500 people are expected to lose their jobs by the end of the year.
Zadziko Mankhambo, communications manager for MACRA, said the shutdowns have nothing to do with press freedom or politics, and there are conditions attached to the broadcast licenses, which must be followed.
Among them, he says, is adherence to the timetable for payments.
“Moreover, MACRA is one of the agents that have advocated for media freedom,” he said. “At the moment, MACRA is ensuring that there are more media houses. And as we are talking there are so many licensees who are waiting to have frequencies to start operating according to the law.”
Mankhambo said MACRA has no plans to reverse its action unless there are changes to the law the authority is enforcing.
However, MACRA has said the closed media houses can apply for new licenses once they settle their outstanding payments.
Source: Voice of America
Big Name Entertainment Buyers Attend Africa’s Biggest Film, TV Market Since Lockdown
Big name entertainment providers like Netflix, Showmax and Paramount have been meeting African content creators this week at the Fame Week Africa conference in South Africa. The three-day conference, which ended Friday, was billed as the continent’s premier business conference for the creative and cultural sectors.
A local government official who declined to be named said numerous deals were being concluded on the floor – and predicted that Fame Week Africa would put Cape Town on the world map in terms of film events.
Countries like the United States, Canada and Kenya had government representation there, while businesses in film, TV, animation, music and entertainment technology had cubicles set up in the Cape Town International Convention Center.
Bonolo Madisakwane, the content distribution executive for Paramount Africa, was sitting in one of them.
“Next week is going to be a very busy week for me and my programming team,” she said. “We have received a lot of screeners. I’m very, very hopeful.”
She said Fame Week Africa was the biggest event of its kind in Africa since the COVID-19 lockdown and people have taken full advantage of it.
“Most of them I had pre-meetings already but quite a number of them, the minute they see me and I’ve got nobody sitting there with me, they just take a seat and they just pitch whatever it is that they want to pitch and they ask all the questions,” Bonolo said.
One man who was hoping to catch up with the likes of Bonolo was South African actor and social media influencer Ernest St. Clair, who has over 67,000 followers on Instagram. He stars in a new film, “2 Thirds of a Man.
“We shot this film in lockdown and it’s finally released and been picked up,” he said. “We are really hoping for it to be picked up by other channels like Showmax.”
Another participant, Canadian singer Domanique Grant, was there to promote her company that works with brands and artist management and development.
“We help to do everything from sponsoring vocal lessons to bringing them to major conferences so that they can get into the industry,” she said.
Having lived in Uganda, she’s also hoping to reach a wider African audience. She is also at the conference to promote her new album, “Queen/Dom.”
“‘Queen/Dom’ is about generational healing and self-love,” she said.
Jill Casserley, Africa sales manager for RX Global, which organized Fame Week Africa, said she believes there will be more events like this to come and that a lot of business was done at this one.
“I’m sure it will continue,” she said. “People are happy to be back to face-to-face meetings. I think they’re done with virtual markets.”
The event was sponsored by MIP Africa, the International Animation Festival, Muziki Africa, Media and Entertainment Solutions Africa and the city of Cape Town.
Source: Voice of America
‘Star Trek’ Actress Nichelle Nichols’ Ashes Headed for Solar Orbit
The late actress Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura on “Star Trek,” will become the latest member of the 1960s television series to be memorialized by having some of her earthly remains flown into space.
Nichols, who died July 30 at age 89, is credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining Hollywood roles for Black actors at the height of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, as one of the first Black women to portray an empowered character on network television.
Now she has been added to the posthumous passenger manifest of a real-life rocket ship due to carry a collection of vials containing cremated ashes and DNA samples from dozens of departed space enthusiasts on a final, and eternal, voyage around the sun, according to organizers of the tribute.
A date for the launch has not yet been set.
Other “Star Trek” cast members and executives who have had remains launched into space include James Doohan, who played the show’s chief engineer, Scotty, and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry.
Also joining the launch will be the remains of Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine Chapel on the series, and the renowned sci-fi visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, whose work was featured in such films as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
The launch is organized by Celestis Inc., a Texas company that has created a unique niche in the burgeoning commercial space sector by offering a measure of cosmic immortality to customers who can afford a dramatic sendoff.
Celestis, which contracts with private rocket ventures, has not publicly divulged the fees and other financial details of its service.
The upcoming memorial flight will be aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket, still under development by the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Plans call for the 200-plus capsules carrying human remains and DNA for what Celestis is calling its “Enterprise Flight” to go inside the upper rocket stage that will fly on into deep space, beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth and moon, and eventually enter a perpetual solar orbit, said Charles Chafer, co-founder and chief executive officer of Celestis.
“It’s a wonderful memorial for her, an eternal one,” Nichols’ son Kyle Johnson told Reuters.
In the 1970s, Nichols was hired by NASA to help recruit more marginalized groups and women to the space agency, where she was influential in attracting such talent as the first woman U.S. astronaut, Sally Ride; the first Black woman astronaut, Mae Jemison; and the first Black NASA chief, Charlie Bolden.
Source: Voice of America