Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)

The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is Malawi’s statutory public broadcaster, founded in 1964 at the moment of Malawi’s independence from Britain. Headquartered in Blantyre at MBC Kwacha House, the corporation operates MBC Television alongside two principal radio services, Radio 1 and Radio 2 FM, with a national broadcasting mandate and broad terrestrial, FM, and satellite distribution. The most recent Ministry of Finance State-Owned Enterprise reporting, however, records reduced transmission coverage and notes that some parts of the country remain without access to public broadcasting services as a result of obsolete transmission equipment. MBC functions as a state-owned enterprise (SOE), as affirmed in successive Ministry of Finance SOE reports, and is governed under the Communications Act of 2016, which places the broadcaster under a Board of Directors comprising five members appointed by the President of Malawi (subject to confirmation by Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee), alongside four ex-officio members. The Board, rather than the President directly, holds the authority to appoint the Director General, a procedural reform under the 2016 Act intended to insulate the broadcaster from direct executive interference.

The current Director General is Brian Banda, appointed by the MBC Board on 13 March 2026 with effect from 16 March 2026. Banda, formerly a presenter at Times Group, Malawi’s leading private media organisation, assumed the role following the dismissal of his predecessor George Kasakula in dramatic and politically charged circumstances detailed below.

Media assets

Television: Malawi TV

Radio: Radio 1, Radio 2

Ownership and governance

MBC is wholly owned by the Government of Malawi. Under the 2016 Communications Act, the broadcaster’s Board of Directors comprises five members appointed by the President, including the Chairperson, subject to confirmation by Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee, alongside four ex-officio members representing ministries and regulatory bodies. The current Board Chairperson is Benson Tembo. The Board appoints the Director General. The 2016 Act includes detailed advertised-recruitment provisions that apply expressly to staff subordinate to the DG; the application of those procedures to the DG appointment itself is less unambiguous. The procedural circumstances of Brian Banda’s appointment have been questioned by media observers, with concerns raised over whether full advertisement and competitive selection were followed.

The leadership succession at MBC during the 2024–26 period has been one of the most turbulent in the broadcaster’s history. George Kasakula, a former editor-in-chief of The Nation newspaper appointed Director General in 2021 under the Chakwera (MCP) administration and granted a contract extension in June 2024 running to June 2027, was forcibly removed from MBC’s Kwacha House premises on 10 October 2025 by men identified as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sympathisers. The intruders forced Kasakula to deliver a live on-air apology to newly elected President Peter Mutharika and the DPP for partisan comments he had made before the September 16, 2025 election, then physically removed him from the premises, an episode captured on live television and widely recognised as a watershed moment for political interference in Malawian media. The broadcaster then went through two acting directors in succession: Arthur Chipenda, then Director of Information in the Ministry of Information and Digitalisation, was appointed Acting Director General on secondment on 22 October 2025; he was succeeded shortly afterwards by Moses Chiwoni, then Director of ICT at the Department of E-Government, who was formally introduced by Minister Namalomba in November 2025. Kasakula was formally suspended pending investigations and ultimately dismissed by the MBC Board on 17 February 2026 on grounds of political partisanship. Brian Banda was appointed substantive Director General on 13 March 2026.

Kasakula and a co-accused were subsequently charged with three counts including alleged conspiracy to defraud MBC through expenditure approvals reportedly amounting to MWK 1.79 billion and abuse-of-office allegations; both pleaded not guilty. The criminal proceedings remain pending as of May 2026.

The supervisory ministry is the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, headed by Cabinet Minister Shadrick Namalomba (DPP), appointed by President Mutharika on 30 October 2025 and succeeding Moses Kunkuyu of the previous Chakwera administration. The Principal Secretary for Information and Communication Technology is Harold Msusa, appointed 28 October 2025.

Source of funding and budget

MBC is funded through a hybrid model combining direct government subvention, commercial revenue from advertising, broadcasting levies, and service fees. The Ministry of Finance State-Owned Enterprise reports document a fluctuating funding ratio: government transfers accounted for approximately 63% of MBC revenue in the 2020/21 financial year, falling to 50% in 2021/22. The most recent 2024/25 Consolidated SOE Report (December 2025) records substantial continuing government transfers, including approximately MWK 6.8 billion for operations, repairs and training (ORT) and MWK 907 million for development projects, but does not support describing “over 60%” as the most recent disclosed funding ratio.

MBC has continued to struggle with financial sustainability. The 2023/24 SOE financial year recorded an MBC net loss of approximately MWK 1.280 billion, following a loss of MWK 1.123 billion in 2022/23, reported in Ministry of Finance SOE consolidated reporting and noted in the broader 2023/24 SOE Credit Risk Report. The fiscal pressure on MBC sits within Malawi’s broader public-finance challenges: the World Bank’s December 2025 Public Finance Review identifies SOEs as a growing source of fiscal risk, citing weak governance, repeated bailouts, limited performance oversight, and political interference, patterns that the Mutharika administration’s reform announcements have explicitly targeted.

Editorial independence

MBC does not exhibit meaningful editorial independence. Despite the 2016 Communications Act’s formal provisions on impartiality and the constitutional guarantee of press freedom, the broadcaster has consistently aligned with whichever party holds executive power. The most authoritative confirmation of this pattern in the current update cycle comes from the MISA Malawi end-of-year 2025 assessment, which stated explicitly that “in its election coverage, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) favoured the then ruling party [MCP] and failed to be fair to the opposition parties, contrary to the spirit of public service and fairness as promoted by the Communications Act of 2016.” Independent monitoring through the iVerify Malawi fact-checking initiative, launched in 2025 by MISA Malawi with support from the United Nations Development Programme, documented disinformation during the campaign and noted MBC’s role in amplifying ruling-party narratives. EU election monitoring also reported asymmetric state-linked online activity, including pro-MCP skew in MBC Digital output.

The 2024–2026 period was defined by Malawi’s 16 September 2025 general election, which produced a 76.4% voter turnout and a decisive return of Peter Mutharika and the Democratic Progressive Party. According to International IDEA reporting, Mutharika secured approximately 56.8% of the presidential vote, against incumbent Lazarus Chakwera at approximately 33%, comfortably crossing the constitutional 50%+1 threshold introduced after the disputed 2019 election. The transition was constitutionally peaceful, with Mutharika sworn in on 4 October 2025 at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre under the theme “A Return to Proven Leadership: Building Malawi Together.” However, the campaign and post-election period were characterised by sustained pressure on independent journalism: MISA Malawi documented a “surge in attacks” on journalists that “went largely unpunished despite government pledges to protect press freedom.” The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) under then-Director General Daud Suleman reportedly instructed major media houses to halt the live broadcasting of unofficial election results dashboards during the count, at a time when Mutharika was reportedly leading, an allegation that has been widely covered in Malawian media but has not been independently confirmed through a published regulatory order. Suleman was dismissed in February 2026; Mayamiko Nkoloma, who had reportedly been acting since mid-December 2025, was confirmed as MACRA Director General on 8 March 2026.

The press freedom environment in which MBC operates is documented in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index, which ranked Malawi 69 / 180 (score 60.96), an improvement of 7 places from 76 / 180 (score 59.20) in 2025, reflecting the peaceful electoral transition, but a deterioration of 6 places from 63 / 180 (score 64.46) in 2024. RSF describes Malawi’s media environment as defined by political influence, with reporters facing “threats and online intimidation campaigns” and most outlets operating on “very tight budgets” that undermine their independence.

AI and digital policy

MBC operates mbc.mw as its primary digital portal, alongside YouTube, Facebook, and X/Twitter presences. No public MBC policy on AI-generated content, content-provenance commitment (e.g. C2PA), or AI disclosure framework was identified in the publicly available record, a documented absence rather than a definitive institutional claim. At the national level, however, AI policy is in active development: Malawi was validating a Draft National AI Strategyand a Draft National Digital Transformation Strategy in February 2026, indicating an emerging policy framework rather than a simple absence of national AI activity. The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the country’s independent communications regulator established under the 1998 Communications Act and continuing under the 2016 Act, has not issued sector-wide AI guidance as of April 2026. The 2016 Communications Act and the 2016 Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act remain Malawi’s principal statutory frameworks for the digital communications sector.

April 2026