By KABS KANU :
Most times, the only reality got by anxious people outside the periphery of an event is the picture constructed by journalists. The journalist is a powerful personality. There is no doubt about it, though many seek to abuse such power. The journalist creates perceptions and gives meanings to events . He sets the tone for public perceptions. He is viewed as a professional observer and interpreter of events and what he says shapes public opinion but when journalists cannot be independent and objective eye-witnesses, readers will always end up with the wrong perceptions about people, countries and events.
This is the dilemma facing readers of newspapers and viewers of TVs in the Western world. They never get to know African leaders better or an accurate picture of African events because those who write or produce the stories about Africa do so with a negative and stereotypical mindset . They are trusted to always slant the news about Africa. According to the Western journalist , Africa is always a darkest continent full of HIV/aids, infectious diseases, chronic poverty , dictators , filth , ignorance and backward social and political systems. The best African leader is only a fitting candidate for the caricature of a dictator.
There are often good reasons to blame the journalists themselves who do the dirty work for their prejudiced and jaundiced attitudes towards Africa . but the media systems they work for come in too for a share of the blame . The Western media thrives on nothing but negativity and stereotypical images when it comes to Africa. That is the only reality of Africa known to Westerners and that is what sells their newspapers and give their radios and TVs ratings. News about Africa must always have a negative and insolent bent . But professional journalism needs not go that road . News reports and interviews should be fact-based, straight blow-by-blow description of events and focused on nothing but the facts. If the journalist wants to give his opinions, he is free to do so in op/ed articles. Not being able to draw a line between a plain news reports and an opinion article is responsible for the charade that journalism has become, even in the West.
In view of the fact that they have better training privileges and a supposedly more enlightened professional environment to operate from , you would want to think that journalists in the West understand and master this essential aspect of the inky trade, which is also taught as Journalism 101 in U.S. universities — Give out the facts , nothing but the facts in news reports and save your opinions for op/ed and feature articles . But alas, journalists in the West are often the worst sinners when it comes to lack of adherence to this fundamental principle of journalism, especially in dealing with Africa.
The ITV Anchorman who interviewed President Ernest Koroma had preconceived notions already about the President , which he wasted no time to project — the same bigoted , fallacious and negative notions that give them the panache to describe every African leader as a dictator and every African nation as a failed state , while reserving flattering adjectives for despotic Western Presidents . His attitude was scornful and condescending and he could not disguise it in his description of the President , his media aides and his work space. It was a deliberate attempt to project an unflattering image of President Koroma to readers to prejudice their minds before they read the interview.
The journalist started by insulting President Koroma whom he described as having a cluttered office. Was that what the interview was about ? To insult our President ?
Where on earth do you not find a cluttered office once in a while, if the occupant of that office has a heavy work load that deals with movement of files and office stuff ? Those who have offices know that it is an inconvenient problem they cannot escape. Peak times do come when we all have cluttered offices. I would not want anybody to enter my office when the UN General Assembly is on or during the running UN Security Council Reform meetings. My office would be cluttered with files all over the place, even on chairs . I cannot help it because I need them like that to enable me to speed through my work efficiently. How much more a President of a country facing such a monumental and monstrous crisis like the Ebola outbreak to add to his multitudinous tasks ? He must have had many important files opened on different tables, which the writer interpreted as a cluttered office. Or the office may not have been cluttered at all.
President Koroma is a workaholic, so it should not be surprising if indeed it was true that he had a cluttered office . Everybody knows that , at this critical time , the President is overwhelmed with state and international matters and the Ebola crisis at a time like this . A sensitive and understanding journalist would have understood that and not made it a feature of his interview . It is the hallmark of a workaholic to have a cluttered office once on a while . It was not a big deal.
But even if President’s alleged cluttered office was a big deal , the journalist should have skipped mention of it for ethical reasons. That was gross intrusion in the privacy of the President and a betrayal of trus. He was there to interview the President . He was not there to observe his office and describe it to the world. That was insolent behavior at its highest. He should have paid more attention to the job he went to do . Whether or not the office was cluttered had nothing to do with the interview and a professional journalists practicing top end ethical journalism would have ignored mentioning it. But the aim of this journalist was to create an unnecessary linkage between the President’s office environment and what he had to say about his commitment towards containing the Ebola outbreak in his country to bias his readers’ and viewers’ minds from the word go . I want to submit that the journalist deliberately injected that aspect in the interview to stereotype another African President . After all, African Presidents are their quarry. In fact, they are not presidents. They are dictators. It was one more moment to ridicule another African President .
Unless he is a blind man, the journalist must have known President Koroma from his countless photos in the media . Nobody would believe that this journalist had never had even the faintest photo of the facial features of President Koroma , before he went to State House to interview him. Yet, , watch how he describes President Koroma. “Behind a desk at the far side, was an elderly gentleman making notes. I did a double take and felt confused. Was that the president already sitting there? So much for our 20 minutes! “ SATIRE at its highest. Unwarranted satire that had nothing to do with the interview. I found that description of my President–A hardworking , focused, devoted President I love and respect– most insulting.
But that was not all. How true was this statement about our President : “This is a rare public appearance by the president who has shunned the limelight since his country has been plunged into the chaos of the world’s worst Ebola epidemic.” This journalist definitely was not talking about President Koroma, the same President Koroma, who has been all over the place receiving international and local stakeholders and contributors to the Ebola fund ( faithfully reported everyday by the President’s State House Media team led by the efficient Jarrah Kawusu-Konte , with pictures ). This TV Anchorman was certainly not talking about the President Koroma who has been all over the place visiting Ebola treatment centres and the Burial Command Centre ? Was this not the same President who risked his life flying in a helicopter to far away Kailahun, the then epicentre of the Ebola outbreak and Kenema ? Was this not the same President whose life was saved by God when he went to Lungi International Airport to board a plane for England to attend an international Ebola Conference on Sierra Leone, a plane that developed engine trouble that was fortunately discovered only as it taxied on the runway ? President Koroma has also addressed the nation a couple of times within the past two months ! ! ! So, where did this journalist get the information that President Koroma ” has shunned the limelight since his country has been plunged into the chaos of the world’s worst Ebola epidemic” ? What do you call such a blatant misrepresentation of facts ?
Thirdly, who is he to interpret the meaning of the President’s responses , as if President Koroma did not know what he was saying or was engaged in doublespeak ? It was another insolent attempt to ridicule a hardworking President , whose heart is unhappy because of the crisis facing his country . Is this what these journalists are trained to do, to make fun of people saddened by unintended circumstances ? The ITV deserves to apologize to President Koroma for the unprofessional, unethical and insensitive treatment of the sovereign President of a whole sovereign nation at a time when his heart is bleeding because of the health emergency in his country. He should have been sympathetic and spared President Koroma his impudent and contemptuous behavior. I hope some of these journalists receive sensitivity training.
Again, who is this man to inject his views in the President’s responses ? When a journalist interviews a personality , especially a President of a country, he gives him the respect his views deserve . He was there to interview President Koroma and should have let the facts speak for themselves and the public determine the validity of the president’s projections, for instance. It was President Koroma’s moment, not the journalist’s . Yet he used every occasion to steal the moment from the President.
The journalists writes : “He thinks by the end of the year the virus will be contained and that the ‘ worst will soon be over’. I’m not so sure.” Really ? Then what was the purpose for asking the President if his mind was made up already that Ebola would be an ongoing problem , without end ?
This was not an interview at all, but just another vain attempt by a Western journalist to continue to perpetuate Western stereotypical nonsense against our African Presidents.
WHAT A SHAME.
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Sierra Leone president defends his reaction to the Ebola crisis
We’d been promised we’d have at least 20 minutes to set up our equipment for an interview with the president of Sierra Leone Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.
After waiting in a meeting room we were ushered to his cluttered office to prepare for the encounter.
It was crowded with advisers and press secretaries. Behind a desk at the far side, was an elderly gentleman making notes.
I did a double take and felt confused. Was that the president already sitting there? So much for our 20 minutes!
My cameraman hurriedly set up lights and the camera, as the audience of presidential staff watched on and the president silently continued his work.
He finally came over to say hello and the interview got underway. This is a rare public appearance by the president who has shunned the limelight since his country has been plunged into the chaos of the world’s worst Ebola epidemic.
He defended his perceived slow reaction to Ebola, saying:
His critics say he took five weeks to say anything publicly about Ebola, and it took 15 weeks to declare a national emergency.
I asked him whether he felt let down by the international community. He was too diplomatic to be overtly critical but conceded, “There have been commitments in terms of filling in the gaps, we wish this was done at some time in the past, but that is where we are.”
Translation: the world has taken a long time to wake up to this, but they are finally sending the people and equipment we need.
He thinks by the end of the year the virus will be contained and that the “worst will soon be over”. I’m not so sure.
We visited the main hospital in Freetown where new patients arriving with a fever are forced to wait in a tent outside the main gate, because the isolation ward inside is so overwhelmed.
The most dire predictions for the spread of the virus are really scary.
If the hospital here is unable to cope now, turning away patients who clearly are sick and could be infectious, what an earth will be the situation in a month’s time when the number of infected may have doubled from three to six thousand in Sierra Leone?
Transcript of Dan Rivers’ interview with the president of Sierra Leone
There has been some criticism of the international community’s response, that it’s been too little too late. Do you feel that the people of Sierra Leone have been let down?
Some of your media here have been critical of your leadership during this crisis- it took you five weeks to speak after the outbreak, 10 weeks to visit the epicentre, 15 weeks to declare an emergency. Do you accept that your personal reaction was slow?
So you don’t feel that in hindsight you would have done things differently?
That economic growth is clearly going to come to a standstill now. Are you worried about the economy of this country?
There has been talk, perhaps alarmist, about this threatening the very existence of some of these countries, Sierra Leone included. If Ebola isn’t tackled it will lead to a complete breakdown of the situation here. Is that something you’re concerned about?
How many people by then, do you think, will have died?
What’s your message to the international community – you still need more help, don’t you?
There is a lot of hysteria in the West, particularly about Ebola. Would you like to take the opportunity to correct that hysteria?
Are you confident those resources are in the pipeline?
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