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.”
The ACC boss also appeared to question the competence
of media reportage of corruption issues. He said most reports in the country’s
dailies hardly march their headlines in terms of contents, often leaving little
or no room for follow up.
“There is not a single day you open newspapers you
don’t see issues of corruption. I welcome it. But sometimes it is a bloody
waste of my time,” he said.
Macauley was addressing a gathering of journalists
and civil society activists on Tuesday, May 9, as part of an annual session
that allows the commission to interact with journalists and activists. The ACC also
uses this forum to update the public on its effort in the fight against corruption.
Corruption remains rife in Sierra Leone, despite every
effort put in place by the government and its development partners.
The latest Transparency International Corruption
Perception Index [2016], for instance, ranks Sierra Leone 123 out of 176
countries surveyed. The country dropped four places from 119/168 in 2015.
According to ACC and many local and international
reports, bribery is the most prevalent form of corruption in Sierra Leone, and
the commission has focused on it because it believes it has the most profound
effect on ordinary Sierra Leoneans.
Through funding from the UK government, the ACC last
year pioneered a ‘Pay No Bribe (PNB) Campaign’ under the donor funded
post-Ebola recovery programme. Details of the progress of the campaign were
reported at Tuesday’s event, held at the Santano House on Awe Street in
Freetown.
The idea of the PNB was inspired by the 2013 Afrobarometer
report which ranked Sierra Leone worst among 34 African countries, with two
thirds of those surveyed admitting bribing an official to get public service.
The PNB operates in real time; callers are guided
through a set of three questions: Did a government official demand bribe while
they sought a service; did they pay the bribe; or did they meet an honest
person who demanded no bribe?
Six government ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs), covering the sectors of health, education, security, water and
electricity, are being piloted under the initiative. Citizens can also download
an app on a mobile device and report verbally. On downloading the app, an
automated voice prompt leads you through the questions. They can also log on to
a dedicated website [www.pnb.gov.sl] to report.
Within the last six months, the report shows, 16,
657 people reported been asked to pay bribe to access services. Only 3,537
reported that they received services corrupt free.
Commissioner Macauley believes corruption in Sierra
Leone was rife because of a “deficit in morality” among the people.
The ACC wants the media to up its role in the fight
against graft.
But journalists say they are constraint by several
factors, notably the notorious criminal libel law which has become a tool with
which corrupt public official keep probing journalists at bay.
Among the audience at Santano House was Kelvin
Lewis, President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), who
singled out the Criminal Libel Law as the single major deterrent against
journalists’ ability to report on graft.
This law, part of a highly criticized 1965 Public
Order Act, imposes a jail term of up to three years on journalists who are
found wanting. And interestingly, reporting the truth doesn’t serve as
protection under this law.
Lewis said for as long as the criminal libel law
remains in the law books, the fight against corruption will remain unwinnable.
“The media
believe in the fight against corruption owing to the fact that it will lead to
better society,” he said.
But, he added, “when we go after them, whether it is
based on fact or not, the law is used against us.”
The SLAJ president also lamented lack of access to
information as limitation to journalists’ investigative ability.
Sierra Leone in 2013 passed the Right to Access
Information law which was hailed by freedom of information law advocates. But three
years on, journalists continue to complain that the passing of the law has been
virtually of no help. Officials, they say, either provide information late or
do not provide it at all.
“The access to information commission is very well
under-resourced and what they are suppose to do they are unable to do it,”
Lewis said, noting that because of this journalists find it difficult to get
the right information, like financial documents, to aid them in investigating
corruption issues.
SLAJ and the ACC have a MoU in the fight against
corruption. On this basis the umbrella journalist body has appealed to the
Commission to consider training its members on investigative reporting and on
ways to avoid falling foul of the criminal libel law.
SLAJ also wants the ACC to look into providing
compensation and security measures for journalists who are engaged in reporting
corruption.
While acknowledging the danger associated with
reporting corruption, the ACC boss sounded helpless with regards the issue of
the criminal libel law.
“The criminal libel law is a political issue and you
know that the ACC tries the very best to keep off from political issues, but
that doesn’t mean we do not have conscience,” he said.
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