Sierra Leone: Strong warning from media regulator over political advertisement

By Kemo Cham

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) Sierra Leone’s Independent Media Commission (IMC) has warned media houses against publishing or airing unethical political advertisements that seeks to promote hate speech.

IMC chairman Alieu Kanu said the Commission is ready to drag to court any media house which fails to abide by its codes of ethics.

The warning, which was made Thursday, comes as the Commission intensified its campaign to have the media toe the line of professionalism, especially in light of the ongoing electioneering process.

Media watchers are concerned about the wording of contents to avoid inciting violence. There are also concerns about how journalists source their news. Some are on record relying on social media, where many stories are without facts.

Sierra Leone: Concerns over sudden rise in hate speech ahead of poll run-off

By Kemo Cham

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) There has been a barrage of appeals for calm amidst a rise in hate speech, ahead of the second round of Sierra Leone’s presidential election later this month.

Supporters of Sierra Leone’s incumbent All People’s Congress (APC) and the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have been trading abusive exchanges, mostly along ethnic grounds, following the announcement of the results of the first round vote. There have been reports of violent clashes in parts of the country as a result, notably in the southern Bo District, where rival party supporters reported attacked each on Thursday, leading to the intervention of the police and military.

The APC and SLPP have dominated Sierra Leone’s politics since independence, must due to an imaginary geopolitical divide created which gives the APC control over the northwest region, and the SLPP control over the southeast.

Sierra Leone: Journalists union unveils election monitoring committee

By Kemo Cham

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has unveiled a committee tasked with monitoring the media as part of an initiative designed to ensure an impartial reportage of this year’s general elections.

The media has for a long time been blamed for its role in frustrating Sierra Leone’s fledgling democracy, as some journalists and media practitioners are accused of bias reporting. Over the years the media has become so divided along the party political divide that it leaves very little room for reportage that helps the masses make informed decisions.

The SLAJ Media Monitoring and Review Committee, unveiled on Wednesday, is part of efforts to counter this trend, say the leadership of the journalist association. Through this donor funded initiative, it also will train some 50 journalists across the country on elections reporting.

Sierra Leone: Head of broke state broadcaster suspended

By Kemo Cham

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) The Board of Trustees of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) has suspended its Director General and four other senior officials following strike actions this week which brought work to a standstill.

The struggling national broadcaster was paralised on Monday when junior and intermediate staff decided to stay away from work, citing poor working condition. For the whole day the routine programs of the broadcaster were interrupted. The aggrieved workers accused the management of incompetence, which they say has led to the poor state of affairs, citing frequent lack of electricity supply to run the corporation’s radio and tv stations. They say poor organizational management, poor financial management have led to lack of logistics and equipment which has prevented them from doing their job.

Sierra Leone: Staff of broke national broadcaster on strike

By Kemo Cham

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) Aggrieved by poor working condition, the staff of Sierra Leone’s struggling national public broadcaster, Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), have on Tuesday embarked on an indefinite strike action. According to reports, the protesting staff are demanding the resignation of the management over its failure to provide them the necessary aide to do their job.

They say they have no equipment like computers, cameras and even

reliable electricity supply. They also accused the management of

condoning political interference in the public service broadcaster.

SLBC was transformed into what was supposed to be an independent broadcaster from the former Sierra Leone Broadcasting Services (SLBS) under a United Nations funded project meant to strengthen the country’s

Sierra Leone journalist union condemns attack on members

By Kemo Cham

Sierra Leone’s umbrella journalist body has expressed alarm over a series of attacks on its members while covering Saturday’s presidential run-off election.

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) said it received reports of several attacks on journalists in Freetown and elsewhere in the country, leading to the hospitalization of some of them.

In a statement issued out on Monday, the association cited three of the incidents which occurred in Freetown and it said were corroborated with eye witness accounts.

One of these cases involved a reporter with one of the country’s leading dailies, Concord Times. The reporter, Patrick Jaiah Kamara, was allegedly beaten by thugs on the instruction of leading politicians identified as

Sierra Leone: US mission dismisses ‘fake news’ attributed to Donald Trump

By Kemo Cham

The United States has refuted a comment attributed to US President Donald Trump congratulating one of the candidates in the just concluded elections in Sierra Leone.

In a tweet that has gone viral on social media, the tweet purporting to be from Trump hailed the electoral process as free and fair and then congratulated opposition leader Julius Maada Bio for winning the election.

Sierra Leoneans went to the polls on Saturday to vote in a run-off presidential contest between Samura Kamara of the incumbent All People’s Congress (APC) and Bio. Two days since the voting, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has been counting the results without releasing any figure. And the two rival parties have been claiming and counter-claiming victory.

Sierra Leone: Telecoms regulator denies ordering internet shutdown

By Kemo Cham

The National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) of Sierra Leone has dismissed reports that it ordered the shutting down of internet connectivity on Saturday.

Internet connection went off shortly after counting began, and the blackout lasted for about 12 hours. It sparked speculation from specially opposition supporters that the governing All People’s Congress (APC) party could be up to a game to rig the election.

Local observer organisations, including the Independent Radio Network, which comprises some 40 radio stations nationwide, use the internet to transmit results across the county which serves as provisional results. The political parties also use the internet to collect data from their agents and tally them. Critics say the APC could have acted to prevent these organisations from tallying their results.   

How Sierra Leone is using technology to fight corruption at source

KEMO CHAM in Freetown

In a room within the first floor of the headquarters of the Sierra Leone National Lottery Company, the telephone lines are unusually busy.

A young lady, aided by a male colleague seated opposite her across a desk of computers, is busy receiving calls from anonymous callers.

This is part of a pioneering initiative dubbed ‘Pay No Bribe’ campaign, the latest approach by the Sierra Leone government in its crusade against bribery, considered the most prevalent form of graft in the country.

The callers are guided through a set of three main questions: has a government official demanded bribe while they seek a public service; did they pat the bribe; or did they meet an honest person who didn’t demand bribe.

Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) officials say various studies have pointed to petty corruption, prevalent in the public sector, as having the most profound effect on the livelihoods of the masses, depriving them of much needed and sometimes lifesaving services.

Sierra Leone: The media and the fight against corruption

By Kemo Cham

Last October the role of the Sierra Leonean media in the fight against corruption was put to a test. One of the country’s telecommunication operators was found wanting for tax evasion. According to the National Revenue Authority (NRA), the company understated its tax returns, among other offenses.

Only a sizeable number of the media got wind of the story; journalists from about half a dozen media outlets invited by the taxman to cover an operation to shut down the offices of the telco. Agents representing the telco allegedly sought to bribe all the journalists to kill the story.

With the exception of the state owned Daily Mail and Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), no media outlet aired or published anything about the incident. All the other media houses reported to have sent journalists to cover it denied knowledge of it.

‘Sierra Leone media lacks integrity’ – Ady Macauley

By Kemo Cham & Mohamed T. Massaquoi

Lack of integrity in the Sierra Leonean media is frustrating efforts in the fight against graft, the head of the Anti Corruption (ACC) has said.

Ady Macauley said in spite of the valued collaboration his commission enjoys from the media, it also realized that a lot of journalists were hindering its efforts by serving as hired hands for corrupt public officials. Journalists, he said, are sometimes paid by officials under the radar of the anti graft agency to divert attention from them by attacking the personalities of anti corruption officials.

“Sometimes immediately the ACC arrest an individual that is high up there, I expect an attack from the press,” Macauley said. “They go out there and pay certain individuals in the press. So the focus is shifted to the Commissioner. That’s when they will bring about all sort of stories about the commissioner.”