🇸🇱🤨🧐 𝐀 𝐓𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐇.𝐄. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓: “𝐍𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬”.
AWARENESS TIMES EDITOR’S NOTE: At the end of this Note, is a news report from the Office of the President. The last paragraph of that Presidential News is completely false and untrue.
The TRUTH is that the Editor of this newspaper was doing her legitimate duties as a journalist and using very democratic tools to do her duties when she was maliciously and egregiously victimized right under the very Leadership of President.
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁, 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽.
Our President should reduce his penchant for re-writing History. It’s not an admirable penchant.
He already has a great Resume to burnish for himself in the area of Press Freedom and in the area of Empowerment of Women. Let him cite those and stop re-writing his very bad legacies.
He is human and he makes mistakes. He does not need to sweep his mistakes under the carpet and PRETEND they never happened.
We respect the President but we cannot allow the untruth to stand. So in a subsequent edition in the future, we intend to run a special commentary to diligently remind President Bio of what he seems to be forgetting actually happened under his Leadership. More Anon.
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NEWS FROM OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:
On Thursday 26 October, 2023, His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio met with the leadership of the Independent Media Commission, IMC at the State House in Freetown.
During the meeting, the Chairman, Dr Victor Massaquoi thanked the President for repealing Part 5 of the Criminal Libel Law.
The IMC updated His Excellency on the progress made so far in the media landscape since the repeal. They also shared the Commission’s efforts towards promoting professionalism and ethical practice in the country’s media landscape.
The President on his part thanked the leadership of the IMC for their continued efforts to sustain the legacy of free and ethical press in Sierra Leone.
As a thorough democrat, His Excellency averred that freedom of the press is an important and essential ingredient for the promotion and sustenance of democracy and good governance, hence the need to prioritise press freedom in the country.
The President maintained that under his leadership, no journalist has been victimised for undertaking their legitimate duties as a journalist and promised to continue to promote a free press in Sierra Leone.
END OF NEWS REPORT.
