An investigative media organisation in Malawi, the Media Institute of Southern Africa in Malawi (MISA-Malawi), on Monday, accused the Malawi Police Service of hacking a website for the Platform for Investigative Journalism.
The website hacking is coming about a week after police arrested the Managing Director of the Platform, Gregory Gondwe, over a story he published about corruption involving several government officials.
The police, while arresting Gondwe, said they were desperate to find out where and how he obtained the exclusive documents he used in the story, but when Gondowe refused to reveal his sources, the police seized his mobile phones and laptop, and also forced to reveal their passwords.
A statement by the MISA-Malawi confirming the incident, said it believes the “hacking was intentional” and cannot rule out the involvement of state agents, considering the circumstances.
Teresa Ndanga, the chairperson for MISA-Malawi, in the statement, said:
“This hacking incident happened a few days after the managing director of the Platform was arrested, his gadgets seized and was forced to hand over his passwords.
“So, they essentially had access to everything that Gregory has – his private life, his work life and everything else. And that coincidence in itself is conviction enough on our part to conclude or to suspect that police are involved,” she said.
But the Malawian deputy police spokesman, Harry Namwaza, in his own statement, dismissed the allegations, saying the media watchdog has no evidence.
“Actually as police, you actually know that we have a mandate to summon any person we feel that will be important in our inquiries and the investigation was legally binding. So, this is why we are saying basing the accusation on that, is not substantial in terms of evidence.
“Interrogating him was one of the stages of our investigations we are conducting because he is one of the people we know that can help in the investigations. But it has nothing to do with the hacking.”