Inspiring Journalists to Soldier on

In a region that is plagued by injustice and media violations, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Press Freedom award cannot be a better inspiration to those scribes with a passion of getting the news to the people. Support from the Southern Africa Trust for this kind of inspiration could not have come at a better time.

This year, the MISA Press Freedom award was awarded to Mr. Aleke Kadonaphani Banda, who was also the guest of honor at the award ceremony. Whether it was by design or default that the award giving ceremony was graced by the winner of the award, still remains a mystery! However, one thing that did not give him away was the genuine look of surprise when he was named the winner of the prestigious MISA Press Freedom Award. The award ceremony was held at Mount Soche Hotel, Blantyre, Malawi on 4 September 2007.

	Aleke Banda, right, shaking hands with MISA Trust Fund Board member, Mike Daka as other board members look on

Mr Aleke Banda is a veteran journalist who has through the years fought for media freedom in Malawi. He owns the Nation Publications Limited, which publishes one of the most widely read daily newspapers in the country: The Nation. Even with the considerable time that he spent in various government ministerial positions in both the Kamuzu Banda and Bakili Muluzi Governments, he has always put the interest of media freedom and the right to information first. This, obviously has not won him many friends especially his Government and political party counterparts as he was on numerous occasions criticized for allowing news to be published in the Nation that was deemed critical and unbecoming to the government and the United Democratic Front (UDF) Political party.

In his introductory remarks, Father Frank Bwalya, MISA Zambia Chapter Chairperson, said "To achieve what the winner of the award has achieved today in the fight for a free press is something to be admired."

His biography reads like a real success story but not without hurdles. As he later put it in his acceptance speech, "The road to the freedom of the press is long and it is only those that have a passion that can fight the war until the end."

He further said, our African governments still have long way to go in respecting the freedom of the media but is still optimistic that one day we shall get there, quoting the famous Chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Indeed, in the fight against media oppression and freedom in the southern Africa region, Aleke Banda and others like him have taken not one step but several to realize our dream of a free press and the right to information.

	Aleke Banda, with award in hand, posing for a picture with the MISA Trust Fund Board members

The MISA Press Freedom award, which carries the prize money of US$2500 and is supported by the Southern Africa Trust, recognizes excellence in journalism which is described asthe upholding of ethics of the profession at all costs and the relentless pursuit of truth behind the bare facts. The award is also in recognition of the work of an individual or institution where this is considered to have made a significant contribution to the promotion of media freedom in the region. Past winners of the award have hailed from Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique.