Raphael Tenthani

In 2005, he reported in a news article that the President had moved out of the presidential palace due to a fear of ghosts. In his article, he sourced the president's religious affairs adviser, the Rev. Malani Mtonga,who had reported that President Bingu wa Mutharika had left the presidential palace because he was hearing "strange noises" and "felt a strange presence hanging around him" at night. Rev. Mtonga denied making that statement to the press but another independent journalist, Mabvuto Banda reported the same story in The Nation.[2][10] Mr. Tenthani and Mabvuto Banda were both arrested.[2] Both were arrested at their homes in Blantyre and detained at police headquarters in Lilongwe. He was going to be charged with "publishing false information that is likely to cause [a] breach of peace".[11][2][10] He was released on bail shortly after.[12]

During the Bingu wa Mutharika administration, he became to target of attacks from the government due to his criticism of Mutharika and freedom of the press. Tenthani's house was ransacked by an unknown assailant in 2011, following the Malawi protests against the Mutharika administration.[13]

At the height of Mutharika's crackdown on the press, he was indirectly named in a press release to the nation for being critical dated March 9, 2012, that aimed at suppressing the press. The press release referred to journalists in the country that referred to Mutharika as "Big Kahuna", a pejorative nickname that made reference to the President's increasingly dictatorial turn.[14] Tenthani denied that this was being used to refer to Mutharika pejoratively.[15]