Where to get up to date online news about Malawi

A very good friend, who is in Botswana, has been asking me about the whereabouts of Malawi's President, Professor Bingu wa Mutharika. He says it is being reported, in Botswana, that the President has passed on to the next life. He was not sure about it so he decided to ask me about it. News about the President's health and other news about Malawi have suddenly become a must read not only to Malawians but readers from other areas of the world. That is why i have listed down sites where you can get news about Malawi in time.

Traditional news sites.

The best website to get news at the moment is probably Nyasa Times because of the way it updates its contents and the readership it commands in the cyber world. Even though some quarters are not very comfortable with Nyasa Times in the way it reports its news, Malawians like to visit the site and make various comments than any other Malawi news site. Nyasa Times is also credited for giving a chance to people with different views to write their opinions on various issues. The likes of Ndirande Love, Mzati Mkolokosa, Tom Likambale and Emily Mkamanga.

There are three news sites that are doing their best to give up to date and well researched news about Malawi. Malawi Today, Malawi Voice and Malawi Democrat. A special mention also goes to Face of Malawi which not only give news but also many things that affect Malawians.

Those of us who have fallen in love with Muckracking on Sunday, a Sunday Times column by reknown BBC Correspondent, Raphael Tenthani, visit the Maravi Post for a dose of Ralph's critical view of Malawi politics. Maravi post is also good at giving breaking news.

Zodiak Broadcasting Station is also working very hard to match the popularity it has gained as the best radio with online reporting on Zodiak Online. Apart from the ground breaking innovations of listening to their radio online, Zodiak website also gives a chance to download various podcasts like their programmes and interviews. You can download, Sunrise Malawi, Tiuuzeni Zoona, and various interviews.

More downloads can also be found on the archives section of Capital Radio Malawi's website . Brian Banda, considered as Malawi's Larry King, has his straight talk program up for download on the site. As i write this there are interviews of Joyce Banda, Atupele Muluzi, Jessie Kabwila Kapasula, Brown Mpinganjira and Voice Mhone. You can also listen to recorded Day Break Malawi program on the same website.

Malawi's popular daily and weekend newspaper publishers BNL Times and Nation Publications are also maintaining news websites. A few years ago one would not spend much time on their sites because they were not updating their news and even the design of their websites was not up to standards. But of late the BNL Times and The Nation are doing their best and are worthy paying a visit.

Occassionary we also get Malawian news on the international websites like the BBC, CNN, Associated Press, AFP, South Africa's News24, All Africa, Aljazeera.

Blogs

Malawians are seriously adopting the culture of blogging. There are over 90 blogs on a list of blogs aggregated on Mabloga ( a feed cluster of Malawian blogs). These blogs are only those who requested to be added on the cluster. There are others who have not requested to be on the site. This just shows that there are many Malawian bloggers than the number on Mabloga.

Of all these blogs i recommend the following blogs for up to date news on Malawi, Kondwani Munthali's blog, Mabvuto Jobani's blog, Richard Chirombo's Zachimalawi blog and Malawi Financial Mirror. And then there are other blogs whose opinion i value so much and i read and follow them at all times. The likes of Bright Mhango on his blog, Protests Politics and Cultural blog, Kim Yi Dionne's haba na haba blog, Victor Kaonga's Ndagha, Jimmy Kainja,s blog, Dr Khumbo Kalua's blog, Albert Sharra's blog , Chifundo Tenthani's blog and Dannie Grant Phiri's blog. For development and other technology issues these blogs are also great sources of information, Edmond Kachale's blog, Malawi Development Exchange is an Eldis and Malawi National Library discussion forum where Malawians discuss development issues.

On Twitter

Twitter is probably the best social networking site for breaking news. People tweet as everything happens in real time. I have a group of people i follow for breaking news about Malawi. These people tweet accurate news and events as they happen, they also give links of various news concerning Malawi published in other websites. Here is a list of those people, @Malawi2014, @fredbvalani @maravipost, @jkainja, @malawivoice, @nchenga, @kumwendafrank, @mynassah, @chiume, @Cthe, @kondwamunthali,@RexChikoko,@chimzy, @ctenthani, @bennyblithe @malawinews365, @daniso, @dadakim and @amizere.

Facebook

Various friends on Facebook are also on the ground to tell us when news actually happens. This ranges from unconfirmed reports and some news that has actually happened but has not been picked up by the traditional publishers. I have a list of friends including journalists, lawyers, politicians who update their statuses with news that has just happened. The news sites also have Facebook accounts which update us immediately anything newsworthy happens. Malawi Voice Facebook Page and Towards Malawi2014 Elections are the best in this area.

Conclusion

Everyone needs updated and confirmed news. I hope that this list will be of good help to you all my readers and will keep on updating it as more and more sites open up.

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