Media Controversy in Sierra Leone and its effect on Press Harmony

Edi­to­ri­als in Sierra Leone’s print and elec­tronic media have become the indel­i­cate barn­yard of per­sonal vendetta in the form of vicious per­sonal attacks and fool­ish polit­i­cal pro­pa­ganda. From the pres­i­den­tial press team to news­pa­pers asso­ci­ated with the rul­ing party, the appar­ent show­case of malev­o­lent vul­gar only goes to empha­sise the benighted state of some in the Sierra Leone Press.

At a point when some of us are tak­ing steps to har­ness media amity, oth­ers are engaged in sub­vert­ing the oppor­tu­nity in place to achieve this. The press is the only entity pro­vid­ing any sense of bal­ance to the all pow­er­ful and monop­o­lis­tic nature of gov­ern­ment. When the focus of that respon­si­bil­ity is shifted towards the attack on those who you should work with to bring the gov­ern­ment into account, you are left with a sit­u­a­tion where the gov­ern­ment will be reluc­tant to set-free the atmos­phere of media inde­pen­dence which is needed to pro­vide the data used for decision-making by cit­i­zens. A weak­ened media gives the gov­ern­ment room for com­pla­cency and it is also an indi­ca­tion of an unde­vel­oped soci­ety and is a likely source of instability.

There are no proper guide­lines for the media in Sierra Leone to work by. The effec­tive­ness of the Cur­rent organ­i­sa­tion respon­si­ble for press rela­tions, SLAJ, The Sierra Leone Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, has been called into ques­tion; as infight­ing amongst its exec­u­tive for con­trol of its dys­func­tional appa­ra­tus have more than often crip­pled its abil­ity to work as a cred­i­ble entity.

The Press in Sierra Leone has a respon­si­bil­ity to be the eyes, ears, and voice of the peo­ple. In order to func­tion as a real democ­racy, or even as a moral, ratio­nal and socially respon­si­ble coun­try all peo­ple need to have their voices heard, all peo­ple need to be informed about the actions and plans of their gov­ern­ment, and the infor­ma­tion should be clear and truth­ful. But how can this be achieved; when those who are ide­ally placed to exe­cute these respon­si­bil­i­ties are more con­cerned about destroy­ing their col­leagues’ rep­u­ta­tion to achieve polit­i­cal gain?

© 2009, Ahmed M Kamara. All rights reserved. Discuss this article on the Salone Forum Salone Forum

By Ahmed M Kamara