Malawi News Agency (MANA) is the news gathering and dissemination organ of the Malawi Government under the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. MANA, as an institution collects packages and disseminates information in the form of news and photographs through print and electronic media. It has a biggest news network in the country, almost all reputable media houses are on MANA’s subscription and mailing list – and any media house can apply to be on our mailing list. MANA was established in 1966 as a news organization for the country.

Functions

The main function of MANA is to collect, analyze, disseminate, package and distribute news and public information. MANA boasts of being a network of experienced, well-trained field journalists throughout the country and has the mechanism to distribute news gathered to other media organizations in and outside Malawi.  MANA is the largest and well managed news organization in Malawi. This is because of the way we are structured. MANA has its headquarters in Lilongwe, three Regional Offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.

Through its national network, MANA gathers, processes, packages and distributes hard news stories, feature articles and photographs on social, economic, religious, environmental, cultural and political to its subscribers

MANA is responsible for the accreditation of all foreign journalists wishing to work in the country. This could be print or electronic. They can collect material for a radio, newspaper, magazine and a film or Television production. They are directed to MANA headquarters in Lilongwe for accreditation. This could be done on arrival or online. 

All journalists are required to pay a fee of USD $100 for accreditation and they are given a press card.  As part of the Ministry’s mandate, MANA is also responsible to accredit local journalists.

Structure

MANA is headed by a Chief Information Officer responsible for Press, normally referred to as Managing Editor (ME).  The Managing reports to the Deputy Director of Information (Press and Publications). ME is assisted by the Deputy Managing Editor (DME) and a team of editors. In addition to editorial staff, there are also administrative support staffs from other sections like Accounts, stores and Human Resources.

MANA has four editorial newsrooms namely; Headquarters office in Lilongwe, regional offices of North, Centre and South. The regional offices are all headed by Regional Information Officers (RIOs).

MANA has offices in all the 28 districts of the country.  However, to ease administrative functionality, MANA has 29 operational districts with the additional one being Mzimba, that was subdivided into two to cover Mzimba proper on one hand and Mzuzu together with Mzimba North on the other hand.

MANA also has an office at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) where it provides coverage for VVIPs and other dignitaries.

MANA has three supporting sections namely Photography, Central Office of Information (COI) and E-Media

 A common thing in these sections is that despite being under MANA, their functionality cuts across all functions of the mother Ministry and Department.

Photograhy

The section has a dynamic team of professional photojournalists who compliment the reporting arm of the agency. They provide both event coverage for all levels of society and tailor made special requests photo collection exercises for publications, public displays, electronic platforms, albums, etc.

Photojournalists from the section also act as the official photographers for the Presidency and wider Government locally and internationally. The section also has an archive of pictures dating back from over three decades ago and is able to provide these on requests at a nominal fee on request from the public and other stakeholders. Currently, the section is in the process of establishing a digital library in order to ease access to its products.