By: Mohamed M. Sesay
Commemorating World Press Freedom Day, the President for the Sierra Leone Association for Journalists Ahmed Sahid Nasralla has lavished praises on President Bio’s New Direction Government for making the practice of journalism very fashionable especially with the repeal of the 1961 Public Order Act.
He confessed that the biggest achievement in terms of legislation in the last three years is the historic repeal of the Criminal and Seditious Libel Law in 2020. He added that since the repeal, there had been a drastic decrease in arbitrary arrests and detention of journalists by the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) for publications that are critical of the government or of high-placed public officials or politicians.
President Nasralla noted that because of the repeal also, Sierra Leone scored progressively in the World Press Freedom Index of 2021 and 2022 moving about 29 places up the world rankings. He however, pinned that the country had dropped 28 places down from 46 in 2022 to 74 in the 2023 global ranking.
He also intimated that following the repeal of the criminal libel law, the government with support from the BBC Media Action and other partners including SLAJ, convened a National Media Viability and Investment Conference to promote public interest media and investment in the media in Sierra Leone. He said Sierra Leone is now a beneficiary of a grant of 100 thousand US dollars from the International Fund for Public Interest Media to set up structures for a local National Fund for Public Interest Media to which the government has pledged to commit counterpart funding. He disclosed that a Multi Stakeholders Board headed by SLAJ had been established to provide oversight for the fund as well as a Technical Working Group to administer the fund through the MRCG.
President Nasralla continued that with the passing of the new IMC Act in 2020, it had now made it a statutory obligation for media employers to pay their staff above the minimum wage, and their social security contributions. He said if media houses fail to comply their annual licenses would not be renewed by the IMC.
He expressed dismay that assessment studies of the information landscape show that the spread of disinformation, fake news, and hate speech on social media and offline to local communities by word of mouth through influencers and trusted voices is largely responsible for violent incidents in the country in the last two to three years, including the infamous August 10th violent protests that claimed the lives of innocent civilians and police officers.
“Finally, in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day 2023 SLAJ and the MRCG, with the support of the EU, will launch the Media Manifesto 2023 with the theme: ‘The MEDIA WE WANT’ on 26th of May 2023. The leaders of political parties contesting the June 24 elections are expected to commit to the media manifesto as part of their parties’ manifestos”, he said.