The Malawi State House has said it will be responding to the letter soon.
The proposed piece of legislation empowers the minister of information to ban newspapers and the media has requested that the proposed amendment be referred back to Parliament for further consultations.
On Thursday, 18 November 2010, Parliament amended Section 46 of the Penal Code, to read: "If the minister has reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest, he may, by order published in the Gazette, prohibit the publication or importation of such publication."
Before the proposed amendment, the section only prohibited importation of seditious publications.
"Your Excellency, Sir, commentators have already described the amendment to Section 46 of the Penal Code as retrogressive other than progressive for Malawi as a nascent democracy," reads the letter signed by Aubrey Chikungwa MISA-Malawi national director and Suzgo Khunga, the body's treasurer general.
MISA-Malawi informed President Mutharika that some of the sections in the Penal Code are outmoded and inconsistent with the current democratic dispensation.
"These sections, Your Excellency, were crafted during the colonial era and undermine the spirit and provisions of the Constitution of Malawi as a democratic republic," said Chikungwa and Khunga.
MISA Malawi, the Media Council of Malawi and other relevant bodies within the media fraternity say they were not consulted when the section in question was being considered for amendment.
"We feel proper and thorough consultations should have been done before the matter was brought to parliament for discussion," the president was told in the letter.
The letter has also been copied to the chief secretary to the office of the president and cabinet, the minister of information and civic education, the minister of justice and constitutional affairs and the chairperson, of parliamentary committee on media and communications.
