By: Haja Hawa Koroma
The Independent Media Commission in partnership with the People’s Republic of China held an official launch of a professional media seminar at the Kona Lodge Hotel, on Wednesday 18th May 2022.
The theme “interrogating Media Operations in Sierra Leone: Engaging the Media on Professional Ethics and Standards” was the sole essence for the seminar. The IMC and representatives from the China Government organized this event in order to educate journalists, editors, station managers and others that subscribes to the media sector on Media Ethics and professionalism so as to maintain the good image and respect for the media sector especially as the nation will rely on the media for reports in the upcoming elections come next year.
The Sierra Leone Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Mr Domina said that, Sierra Leone and the China Government enjoys a long standing fraternal friendship that has been forged over several decades on the basis of collaborative efforts to achieve National economy development and to achieve a shared prosperity. He added that, the media has been enjoying some of the benefits from this friendship and this event is one of them as the People’s Republic of China helped in the funding.
In his keynote address, The Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone, H. E Hu Zhangliang expressed his appreciation and congratulates the IMC for hosting such event as the Chinese Government has invested in the media practice in Sierra Leone. He added that the media shoulder’s an important mission such as telling the truth, promoting public ethics and morality, building social consensus and upholding justice. Therefore, the media play an important role in the political, economic and social development of all countries.
He mentioned that he is pleased to see that, with the joint efforts of the Sierra Leonean government and people, especially the media organizations and practitioners, great achievements have been made in the information sector in Sierra Leone in recent years. For instance, the abolition of the Seditious Libel Law and the hosting of the first national media investment conference etc.. The Press Freedom Index for Sierra Leone has risen from 75th in the world to 46th, and the number of national radio stations in Sierra Leone has increased from 139 in 2019 to 155 now.
He further stated that the Sierra Leonean media institutions have also made important contributions to the development of the China-Sierra Leone friendship and cooperation. Most media in Sierra Leone have been reporting China and China-Sierra Leone cooperation in an objective and fair manner.
The Chinese Ambassador stated that, not too long ago the Media were bashing at them, writing all sorts of negative things about them, claiming that they abuse their Sierra Leonean workers and so on. But upon investigations all these claims turns out to be false. He said that the Chinese Government now has a healthy relationship with the media sector, but he just brought this up so as to encourage journalists to fact check their stories before publication as that may hinder the economy of the country because had it not been that the Chinese government and Sierra Leone government has a very strong friendship they would have depart from Sierra Leone and that would have been a major blow to the economy of the country as they invest in different sectors in the country without expectations of anything in return. He confirmed that they do have their own benefits that they derive from the friendship but they never coerce or forces or demands anything from the government.
H. E Hu Zhanliang added that because of the way the media has been reporting, the Sierra Leonean people are able to get a better understanding of China’s development path and experience as well as the specific results of the cooperation between the two governments, he said that this shows how powerful the media is.
The Chairman of the IMC, Dr. Victor Massaquoi in his speech stated that, integrity and credibility are the foundation of journalism; therefore it is a must that every journalist possesses these qualities. He added that it is important for media practitioners to practice ethical and professional journalism, they should deviate from partisan or selfish ways of reporting but should rather report the facts regardless of who or what the issue maybe.
The chairman strongly believes that the media sector can improve, the media can relate to the people and that the media can act as a vehicle to facilitate national development. He also said that the IMC believes that it has the ability to execute its functions as prescribed for in the new IMC 2020 Act. He explained that this Act outlined how media institutions should act professionally and if they violate that it also made provisions on how they will be disciplined.
Chairman Massaquoi further stated that the IMC will always ensure to protect journalists and maintain the media freedom and freedom of speech, but will also ensure that they don’t abuse their privileges and result to blackmailing people, or report stories based on malice or personal vendetta as their will be consequences for such actions.
He also said that they are working on projects so as to be able to send journalists to different countries in order to gain more knowledge on the field so as to promote the media.
All these and more were discussed at the seminar, it was an educative, informative, engaging and interesting seminar as media practitioners learnt a lot of important and vital stuffs to take into practice.
