By Crispina Lois Taylor
An opposition Member of Parliament representing constituency 002 in the Kailahun district, Mustapha Brima, has noted that the president failed to acknowledge the role of the media as he thanked key players in the fight against the Ebola epidemic so far.
Contributing to a debate on the presidential speech in parliament yesterday, the MP said: “the media was snubbed in the presidential speech in paragraph 113 were the president said thanks to specific people and groups that have made immense contribution in the fight against Ebola.” MP Brima observed that the media was never mentioned.
The Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party MP went on that the media made a contribution of Le3 million for a 30-minutes air time on 51 radio stations across the country for 14 consecutive days and newspapers gave half pages to Ebola awareness programs, adding that they were still doing it.
When Ebola first broke out in the country, MP Brima explained, a lot of wrong messages were going out to the public until the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) was called to State House by the president and asked to step in and “save the situation.”
Though there were journalists that focused more on personalities than issues, he noted, “there are many fine ladies and gentlemen in the fourth estate.”
He further noted that even the appointment of Independent Media Commission commissioners and chairperson was never done in consultations with SLAJ, which is what the IMC Act stipulated yet the procedures were snubbed.
“The APC came to power on a media train but the kind of relationship that existed between the government and the media is being jeopardized,” the MP said.
Asked by Politico if he was trying to set the media against the government, the SLPP parliamentarian responded: “As a professional journalist and a politician, I think it is unreasonable to ask that because I think the APC is ungrateful to the media”.
SLAJ president, Kelvin Lewis, agrees with the MP. He told Politico that from the look of things all efforts made by the media in the fight against Ebola was not being appreciated.
However, Lewis assured that the media’s role in the fight would not be affected as “we are committed to the people of this country”.
© Politico 29/01/15
