By Zainab Joaque
Concern is growing in media circles that the government will soon take over media regulation as it emerged last night that the Chairman of the Independent Media Commission has written to the government saying he doesn't wish to be considered for a second term when his current mandate runs out tomorrow, 17 October 2014.
Rod Mac-Johnson told Politico last night that he was stepping down at the end of his three-year mandate but refused to be drawn on any further details.
Deputy Information Minister, Theo Nicol confirmed that government had received the IMC chairman's letter "that he is no longer interested in renewing his mandate and in the case of the other commissioners, SLAJ has sent their nominees but the other constituent bodies haven’t sent theirs, but we are working on that already. So when State House gets all the nominations then we will be fine."
Asked how soon this would happen, the minister replied, "I can’t say because everything is in the hands of the president. He will have to decide on the way forward but as far as I know they are working on that, looking for commissioners and a chairman, hopefully very soon."
Nicol said that while the process was in motion and the IMC "is not functional the government through the Attorney General will take charge in moderating the press [and] he can take action in conjunction with the ministry against any erring journalists. Any paper that goes against the Code of Practice can be closed down by the Attorney General, he has the powers."
The Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists said his association was "baffled and we do not know why up to this time our nominees [for Commissioners] have not been sent to parliament for approval...We have done our part as clearly stated in the IMC Act by forwarding the names of the proposed commissioners over two months ago."
Moses Kargbo told Politico that "this is a matter of urgency, we need to get the IMC properly constituted at this time because we have started seeing attempts by the government to regulate the media, a clear example being the cabinet decision to stop the radio programme, Monologue, without recourse to the IMC."
Kargbo said "journalists generally are in support of the IMC, but when it is not properly constituted that will create room for people with ulterior motives to do whatever they want to journalists and that's a worrying development."
A mass communication lecturer at Fourah Bay College, Tonya Musa said "parliament has been approving other nominees so they should have also looked into the issue of the IMC Commissioners and approved them given the urgency of the situation."
He said "there are several questions now about the coverage of the Ebola outbreak relating to media ethics and possible breaches of the IMC Code of Practice but because the IMC does not have a quorum it cannot take any decisions".
Musa said however that again if the media considered the reconstitution of the IMC as an issue they should give it prominence so that something would be done about it.
Ibrahim Tommy of the Center for Media Accountability and Rule of Law described the IMC as "It is shame that the Commission has not been fully constituted for some time now and the IMC is currently reeling". Referring to it as "a shadow of what it was meant to be", Tommy said "a leadership vacuum at the IMC can only further weaken the Commission, and that would be extremely unfortunate."
(C) Politico 16/10/14
