To that effect, government has merged budgetary allocation for the two broadcasters in the 2008/09 budget under the name, Malawi Broadcasting House (MBH). The national budget was presented in Parliament on May 23.
 
Deputy information minister, John Bande said MBH was just one of the names that was proposed during the consultations on the merger of the state radio and television but it was not the final one.
 
“ It does not mean that we have settled for this one. We are still consulting on a name befitting Malawi and once we come up with the name we will announce it to the public. This is just a sign that the merger will happen before end of this financial year,” Bande told a local daily.
 
In the current budget government has allocated USD1.514 million which is a little bit higher that the nominal allocation which the two stations were supposed to get last year.
 
Parliament denied funding to the two broadcasters in the 2007/08 national budget by allocating them the initial USD0.007 for alleged bias towards the government and denying the opposition, which has majority in Parliament, access to the airwaves.
 
MBC was se up in 1964 when Malawi gained independence and monopolised the airwaves up to 1994 when government allowed a second radio station to operate in the country.
 
Television Malawi was registered in 1998 and is the sole television station in Malawi after the communications regulator, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) stopped a second station from operating while it was still testing its signal.
 
Source: MISA Malawi

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