By: Haja Hawa Koroma
During the one day professional Ethics seminar held by the Independent Media Commission on Wednesday 18th May 2022, to enhance journalist’s professionalism and ethics in their practice, different speakers were invited to shed light on these issues.
Civil Society and Good Governance advocate, Mrs. Marcella Samba Sesay, explained the relationship between the media, the public and the civil society and the how these three can work together and be a force for good to enhance good governance and a vibrant media.
She stated that it is important for the media to understand its role in society because if the media fails to play its role in society that particular society is doomed for failure. She emphasized that the space the media holds is powerful since the media has tools to sanction the government.
Mrs. Marcella therefore encourages the media to do a proper job and for the media and the civil society to work together and not be at loggerheads because any society that has a civil society and the media at parallel lines is bound to fail. He advises journalists to be more invested in civil society matters because civil society and the media act to save the public in which we all belong to.
Whereas, the Managing Director of Rokel Commercial Bank, Dr. Ekundayo Walton Gilpin, delivered a speech on the private sector and contemporary media practice. In his speech he stated that the private sector is critical in the economy of the country and without a vibrant private sector the government alone cannot move the economy, employment rate will not be massive. He added that the relationship between the media and the private sector is very important as bad press can ruin and damage the image of an entire business since bad news travels faster than good news and repairing bad news takes a lot of efforts.
He mentioned that, a lot of contemporary media institutions normally publishes or reports a lot of negative things about the private sector businesses due to personal vendetta they have for them, maybe because they are denied adverts and sometimes because of personal grievances and so on. He established that this is bad for the economy of the country because if foreign investors and clients constantly see a particular private sector being dragged in the news, they’ll take their investments and clients tend to go elsewhere to do their business and this is bad because if the media or the government seeks donations and investments from them for the media they won’t have enough resources to render that help as the media has caused them a huge financial collapse. Therefore, the media must be considerate in their way of reporting and helps the private sector to grow so they can also help in the development of the country’s economy.
Commissioner James Tamba Lebbie, lecturer at the Media school of FBC, sheds light on Standard Reporting Guidelines for Media Practitioners in order to enhance media operations in Sierra Leone especially the ethical conduct in model reporting and the role of editors and managers in media entities.
He said that freedom of speech is a right we all enjoy as Sierra Leoneans not only as journalists as per the constitution of Sierra Leone. But with every right comes responsibilities and as journalists it is our responsibility to the society to report the news accurately and fairly as that is what underscores ethical journalism.
He added that, professional integrity and credibility is said to be the foundation of journalism therefore any journalist that lacks these qualities is not a good journalist.
He mentioned that journalists must not be biased and partisan, they must be neutral to all sides of a story and must not report stories based on emotions but facts. Ethics is the basis of professional journalism and any journalist that doesn’t report considering the code of ethics is crippling his/her professionalism and credibility.
Journalists are advised and encouraged to take all the lectures at the seminar at heart and ensure to report professionally as a professional media sector changes so much in the growth of the society.
