It has been established that the United Kingdom (UK) and US governments are sponsoring the operation of Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) with the aim to deal with successful business individuals particularly of Malawians of Asian origin.
We have details information on how the two nations facilitate the establishment of PIJ with enough funding for office space and equipment.
PIJ staffs including Gregory Gondwe, Golden Matonga are on British pay role.
With the support from British aid, PIJ has been working closely with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while accessing secretive government legal documents in the name of Investigative Journalism.
This is the reason the two governments; USA and UK, were very furious on Gondwe’s police probe while politicising the whole process.
Consequently, forcing
Malawi strongly to repudiate USA and UK and other stakeholders for politicising the arrest of Gondwe and casting aspersions of the president chakwera’s character for his quest to promote freedom of the press in the country.
In a Press Statement released on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 and signed by Minister of Information and Digitization says that president Chakwera is committed to promotion of freedom of press in the country.
“Government repudiates all attempts and efforts by some quarters to politicize the incident by casting aspersions on the unimpeachable character of the State President, whose promotion on a free press is as unshakable as his promotion of independent police,” reads in the statement in apparent response to UK and USA which were among the first to strongly condemn the arrest.
The statement further says president Chakwera’ s and his government has a duty to respect the independence of police in carrying its duties therefore it has no mandate to interfere in its operations.
Adds the statement; “Government maintains the policy its policy and practice of non- interference in the operations of the MPs. This is because Government interference in police matters is prohibited by law”.