DANGER CONSTITUTED BY MAADA BIO’S CHAOTIC AND DICTATORIAL RULE NOT BEING REFLECTED IN SIERRA LEONE MEDIA
As Journalism keeps getting poorer and poorer in today’s Sierra Leone
February 22, 2019
By KABS KANU
Sierra Leone is sitting on a volcano that could explode any time because of the dictatorial rule of the worst President of our time, Maada Bio but this is not being reflected in the media.
And it is very sad. The media should report to the world the danger that Maada Bio poses to our safety and security. Maada Bio is pushing our country steadily to chaos , but the media is not talking about it.
And why should anybody be surprised ?
Thanks to the lax standards for ownership of print newspapers and the ease the internet has provided for anybody whatsoever to set up a newspaper, journalists were born overnight during the Kabbah and APC regime and they start calling themselves Editors -In-Chief from the word go. And most of these charlatans are from one region in the country, so you can see why they are so biased in favor of the tribalistic government if Maada Bio today. Sierra Leoneans sat down and allowed their media industry to be controlled by people from one region.
That is one of the reasons that Journalism is very poor in Sierra Leone . When you have ignorant and tribalistic people taking control of a delicate and sensitive profession like journalism, where they do not belong, expect a shipwreck.
Whether it is journalism , whether it is carpentry, whether it is teaching, whether it is masonry, whether it is pastoring the people of God, it is very risky to pitchfork unprincipled , tribalistic and self-serving people to the top of such a precious profession like Journalism.
This is because journalism is a turbulent profession. It is like preaching the word of God. It is not a job for charlatans who side easily with evil.
Yes, some of us supported a President Ernest Koroma but any honest person will confess that despite the mistakes of Ernest Koroma, he comes out as an angel , compared to the devil that is Maada Bio.
This is is the reason that journalism standards are going down, down, down in Sierra Leone. Not only are the print newspapers run by people who have no business in the newsrooms, but even many of the internet media do not measure up to standards because of the quality and calibre of the men calling themselves editors.
Everyday reality in Sierra Leone is reflected only in very few newspapers like SIERRA EXPRESS, AWARENESS TIMES , THE NATIONALIST, WE YONE , STANDARD TIMES , NIGHTWATCH, THE NEW PEOPLE, COCORIOKO and a few others.
Since the SLPP Government came to power last April, the political atmosphere has become very combustive with the nation on the edge , with rampant human rights abuses , rape of the constitution, mass illegal dismissals of workers in ministries, agencies and departments and their replacement with Mendes by a very tribalistic President . Additionally, the new government has spent its time hounding opposition politicians with no attempt to deal with bread-and-butter issues , as a result of which the whole nation is crying of hard times with food shortages and escalation of prices . Yet this is not reflected by many print and online newspapers. Even the incorrigible criminal parading as BBC Correspondent is denying the world an accurate picture of what is really going on in Sierra Leone. Imagine, Sierra Leone is facing an acute shortage of bread , the second staple food of the people, after bread, but Umaru Fofana has not seen it fit to report it to the BBC —Something he could have definitely done if it had happened during the APC era.
If the media cannot reflect what is going on in a country, who will ?
Today, everybody is Editor-In -Chief . We have to change this trajectory in our nation’s journalism.
We used to argue that if journalism must improve in Sierra Leone , we must begin by setting rigid standards for those who want to open or head newspapers . If they have not received the required education , training and experience, however much they think about themselves, they cannot become editors.
But today, education is not the problem. Many of our journalists are well -educated. Many have college degrees, so why are they not living up to expectations ?
I think it is not only a question of ethics and integrity but most of our journalists are tribalistic and regionalistic and once this situation prevails , journalism in Sierra Leone will continue to get poorer and poorer.
A whole country is on the edge of chaos but most of the country’s newspapers are not reporting it.
Shame to the profession and shame to our nation.
