JOURNALISTS BECOME “SOFT-SISSIES” IN SIERRA LEONE : WHERE HAVE ALL THE HARD HITTERS GONE ?
By Kabs Kanu
What ever happened to critical Op/Eds and editorials highlighting and analysing government management of funds , complaints of human rights abuses and other social and political issues? Where have all the hardhitting feature writers gone ? Whatever happened to the art of sports writing in Sierra Leone ? I just got bundles of newspapers.
While I appreciate the opportunity to read my country’s print newspapers and to continue to be abreast with developments back home, I have some questions to ask.
Sierra Leone used to have a vibrant , eloquent and critical media during the Momoh, NPRC, Kabbah and Koroma days, with compelling op/Ed and editorial writers and commentators. Even if you did not agree with their views, at least you were able to read divergent opinions on national issues.
I have been subscribing for and receiving Sierra Leone newspapers since my days in Liberia and I continued the tradition when I came to the U.S. in the early 90s. Apart from being a trained and practicing journalist myself, I read newspapers voraciously and religiously so nobody will say that I am not qualified to make a critical analysis of my country’s newspapers. I follow up news in Sierra Leone far more than many people living in the country.
I have just received bundles of newspapers and to tell you the fact, only very few were worth my money or the precious time I took going through them.
Maybe, there are more great newspapers and my agent failed to send them , and so if my judgement was hasty, my apologies; but from the bundles received , there were over 20 different newspapers . From this lot. I can fairly say that some newspapers like Standard Times, Awareness Times, Sierra Express, The Metro, The Nationalist, Nightwatch were worthy of my money and time. The rest were either manifestly pro-government or just published government press and news releases and were unbothered by the burning political social and economic issues around the country. Some of them were outright frauds—-scanty information and the rest of the pages stacked with advertisements.
I am not saying that being pro-government is wrong and I am not criticizing the pro-government media for their position. After all, different kinds of newspapers contribute to the overall journalism architecture. There must be a healthy balance , with pro-government and opposition newspapers operating side by side to educate the public about the varied perspectives of events in the country.
What is troubling is that the numbers of newspapers playing “soft-sissy” and promoting the government are disproportionally higher today than what obtained in the past. During the President Ernest Koroma era, the newspapers promoting the government today were famous for publishing sensational, wild and explosive allegations about government corrup]tion, misgovernance, human rights abuses and harsh economic times in the country. I write with special reference to newspapers like Global Times, Concord Times. The Independent Observer, Unity. AYV News, Awoko, Premier News etc Reading relatively new newspapers like The Comment, Modern Series, Guardian, Calabash, The Health, etc, you would think that the political and economic atmosphere in Sierra Leone are serene, kind, peaceful and palatable to the people.
What changed in Sierra Leone ? Did politicians, government officials and institutions and the new president suddenly become holy with the change from APC to SLPP ? No serious person will subscribe to such a fallacious contention.
I could be wrong, but my contention is that most of the newspapers and journalists that used to come down heavily on the APC Ernest Koroma government were pro-SLPP and now that the APC is gone and the SLPP is in power, they no longer find comfort or see any necessity in exposing rampant corruption, inept governance , economic hardship and human rights abuses as they used to do.
One of the best investigative journalists, Chernor Alpha Bah of the AFRICANIST Press, who has been exposing wild and damaging corruption and wasteful spending by President Maada Bio, his wife, Fatima and the SLPP Government, with supporting documentary evidence and has rattled the seat of government, complained to me that no print newspaper in Sierra Leone is willing to publish his revelations.
Their sudden change from vibrant activism to soft, bootlicking media treating the government with kid gloves can be compared to the same change that has befallen the country’s civil society and human rights organizations since the SLPP came to power in 2018 . Most of our eloquent and critical civil society activists in the APC days were pro-SLPP or Southeasterners. Today, they have become quiet and supportive of government even in the face of the alarming human rights abuses, rampant corruption, wasteful spending and extremely hard times in the country. It could be safely said that the SLPP hijacked the media and civil society during the era of the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah from 1996- 2007
Now, the best place to read unadulterated Sierra Leone news that reflects accurately the political and economic situation in the country is online and the social media . The online newspapers based abroad, which have correspondents and newsmen inside Sierra Leone, are fearless, unrestrained and accurate in projecting the true picture of what is really happening in Sierra Leone. Hard hitting opinion writers prefer to publish their articles in these online newspapers or on social media, because, according to them, print newspapers in Sierra Leone are afraid or reluctant to publish their articles.
This is a shame for a country once regarded as the FLEET STREET OF WEST AFRICA and the Athens of West Africa.
