On April 8, in Blantyre, a town in southern Malawi, journalist Macmillan Mhone from the Nations Publications Limited newspaper was arrested and detained by the Malawi Police. This was in connection with a story he published about businessman Abdul Karim Batatawala in August 2023, when he was working with the online news outlet Malawi24. The police charged him with three counts related to the story, accusing Batatawala of using fraudulent companies to secure public bids despite being banned from doing business with the government due to involvement in corruption. However, the journalist was released the following day following a public outcry.