State House has lashed out at media houses in Malawi for insulting President Peter Mutharika.
In a statement on Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani said stories published yesterday which accused Mutharika of being lavish insulted the president and Malawians.
The stories concerned Mutharika’s recent trip top Scotland. A United Kingdom newspaper condemned Mutharika for staying in an expensive hotel during his official visit to Scotland when children in Malawi are suffering due to hunger.
A similar story was also published by media houses in Malawi who wrote that the extravagance has angered people in Scotland.
Reacting to the stories, State House said the Government of Scotland identified and paid for the hotel expenses for Mutharika who stayed at Prestonfield House in Edinburgh.
“The State House is therefore surprised that while the Scottish Government arranged and paid for hotel expenses for President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika being their official guest as per diplomatic tradition, some newspapers both local and international have decided to accuse him of being lavish and made him and the people of Malawi the subject of insults and denigration,” said Kalilani in the statement.
State House has since advised media houses against copying reports from international media publications and publishing them without doing own research about the issues being reported.
“The local media should stay steadfast against international tabloids that are bent on hate-reporting and denigrating the image of Africa and its leaders for imperialistic reasons,” said the statement.
