Five Awards In 2019… GT-SIMPAY Drives GTBank With Another Award

JOURNALISTS ARE NOT ENDANGERED SPECIES!!!

Certain politicians, public officers and religious leaders seem to see journalists as endangered species especially Human Rights journalists who report on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) ‘bondo’ and other secret societies violating other people`s rights. The rate at which journalists have been intimidated and threatened for the past years by politicians and government officials is alarming. An instance was when both the broadcasting houses of the main opposition, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and the All Peoples Congress (APC) parties were summarily shut down. No pleas were made on that move by anybody even the media regulatory body, the Independent Media Commission (IMC).

Abu Sheku Kamara This medium gathered that on April 2014, freelance journalists and human rights activists, Mohamed Turay, Alpha Jalloh and Abu Sheku Kamara and others were declared wanted because they were advocating for the righte of homosexuals and the abolition of Female Genital Mutilation (Bondo). The most unfortunate part of it all is the involvement of religious and traditional leaders calling for these journalists to be imprisoned or tortured to death together with those they advocate for if at all they ever show up. Vibrant journalists are being hunted all over the place. A relative of one of the journalists disclosed that Abu Sheku Kamara was a freelance journalist who traveled nationwide reporting issues pertaining to FGM and Human Rights. He further stated that they had admonished him several times to stop reporting against ‘bondo’ practice and for homosexual issues as bondo is part of the traditions and customs of the land but failed to adhere to the advice when on April 2014, some traditional leaders and ‘sowies’ invaded their house to deal with Abu Sheku .The relative said: “ They invaded our residence with knives, sticks and other dangerous weapons demanding Abu to go with them to the ‘bondo’ bush for explanation as it is a taboo for reporting against FGM and they even threatened to burn down the house and drag any relative of Abu Sheku to the ‘bondo’ bush as they want Abu’s head.Our own lives are under threat as they have threatened to kill all of us and destroy any property belonging to Abu`s family”. According to and relative, they sought amicable measures to handle the situation as the person they are looking for is nowhere to be seen since the day of the incident. A relation of Mohamed Turay said: “If journalists are not allowed to freely do their jobs, then the whole society is not protected because there will be no watchdogs on certain issues pertaining human rights as they are the most reliable people that speak for the voiceless. Civil society groups which are to serve as pressure groups for the masses are bent on pulling one another down. Why should people not be allowed to practice what they believe in doing? Journalists are not dangerous people but friends of the masses that promote development and other human rights issues in the country and the world as a whole”. The BBC’s Sierra Leone Sports journalist, Mohamed Fajah Barrie, was molested at the National Stadium by police and nothing concrete came out of it. Government officials continue to threaten journalists and the Sierra Leone Association of journalists (SLAJ) which is the mouthpiece of journalists is not taking government to task. Where is Press Freedom? Similarly, popular radio pundit David Tam Baryoh of “Monologue” fame was detained for hours by the Criminal Investigating Department (CID) from the Transport and Aviation Minister, Leonard Balogun Koroma. Several people stated that journalists have to be free in society for them to do their jobs. The Minister of Information Alhaji Alpha Kanu is also not seen as doing anything to protect the freedom of journalists because it seems government gets a large part of its support from these same religious and traditional leaders as journalists want protection and feel always to do their job as they are not endangered species but contribute to national development. Although the Access to Information has been passed in Parliament yet still journalist find that difficult to seek information.