January 26, 2022
Albert Baron Ansu
The relevance of media in every democracy is often touted albeit with subtle condescending reactions from not only the state but even those non-state actors that are at the receiving end of what journalists do in protection of the public space. For Sierra Leone it is even worse. What am I driving at? Journalism here is taken for granted-talking about the disdain and contempt we face in and out of our operating space. Why this has been an issue that festered over the years can fill tome.
I will therefore skirt around the internal and external factors for the lowly state of the typical journalist and try to zero in on some of the positive things that are emerging-restoring hope that ours is not a lost cause and redemption is nigh.
The reform agenda set in motion in recent past started with the initiative of the formation of the Guild of Editors in 2009 with the UNDP very much supportive of the Bo Sahara Hotel Declaration for editors to fill the void of post war media midwifery influence for democratic transition. Among other things this point was at the heart of the then UNDP Media Specialist Peter Tayoung who goaded us to work on the reform agenda for a new media outlook in the context of fragile peace consolidation.
Then the reinforcing influence of the Media Reform Group with an elevated vision of interrogating the ramifications of the problems that beset media with a view of solving the problems remains a plus. It is all tending to bolstering the flagging influence of the Sierra Leone of Journalists that was hitherto a lone ranger umbrella body championing media rights. When we look back there is a trove of facts about the volume of good things SLAJ had achieved. But with all of that the political realities interlinked to the economy represented the elephant in the room for journalism to assert its true allure like other disciplines. So we have been seen fine journalists drifting from the mainstream; some chose the relatively rewarding arena of public relations.
Where the biggest albatross around the neck of media freedom has been the obnoxious criminal libel law that has been expunged; thanks to the government of President Julius Maada Bio, the problem of the workaday journalist had persisted.
What is the name of that problem? It is an outlandish English-COASTING-doing the unjournalistic as a journalist to make money. Attack collect, defend collect…The form of blackmail It is the reflection of the pauperized journalism industry. It is a bi-product of poor reward system. How many media houses are paying their staff rather than leaving them to the devices of COASTING? The grim statistics is hitting us in the face of over 200 registered newspapers with scarcely 40 on the newsstand. The attrition rate is just too harrowing and the trajectory of media stakeholders to change the narrative of media in this country is welcome news. The wider public must be interested in this; it is not only an empowerment of journalists but the wider society who live in the democratic space where professional media is the umpire. So we are saying the advertisers must come to our new terms. Production costs are burdensome and we are in business like any other business to make profit. The prolong delay in paying our bills is the reason why many media houses have become dysfunctional. It is the reason why many fine journalists have backout leaving the space for colleagues doing wishy-washy. It is easy to say that journalists are not helping the democratic process but we are not fair to ourselves as media consumers who are part of the problem in ‘deprofessionalization’ of journalists. Who is not in for the game changer clarion call of the Guild of Editors? The silence is the consent of all Sierra Leone. When we address the bread and butter issue of journalists in accommodating the new advert payment regime, then it is morally and legally justifiable to push the troubling ethical compliance issue.