Rainbow Television closed shop on Wednesday, leaving 80 journalists jobless amid a standoff between the station and Malawi Comunications Regulatory Authority (Macra) over licence fees.

Macra on July 2 2022 revoked the broadcasting licence of the station owned by Prophet Shepherd Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering the Jesus Nation Church.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Rainbow Television station manager Aubrey Kusakala said they could no longer source funds because the entity was not making business following revocation of the licence.

He said: “As a business, we make money through adverts and since our licence was revoked by Macra, we have not been doing business. So, we had to close as there were no funds to pay the workers.”

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Malawi Chapter on August 24 2022 said closure of broadcasting media houses threatens democratic and broadcasting gains the country has made since multiparty.

In a statement signed by Misa Malawi chairperson Teresa Ndanga, the media freedom advocacy body said there is need for a win-win situation to ensure that broadcasting media houses continue to operate. About 650 journalists are expected to lose their jobs following Macra’s decision to revoke licences of various broadcasting media houses.

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