By Mustapha Sesay
As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, members of the Sierra Leone Association Journalists (SLAJ) have again called on government “not to pay lip service” but to go further and “demonstrate true commitment to press freedom” in the country.
Kelvin Lewis, president of SLAJ, said the day was set aside to remind governments across the world of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom. But he said over the years several journalists had either been incarcerated or charged to court in the line of their duties. Lewis pointed out that 25 journalists have so far been in conflict with the law and that two of his colleagues were in court answering to questions relating to criminal libel law as the world marked world press freedom day.
The SLAJ president reiterated that age old plea of journalists to expunge the part of the constitution that criminalizes the profession of journalism from the country’s law books.
“We continue to maintain that there are enough provisions in the Civil Laws to address any redress sought from those aggrieved by our work,” he said, adding: “If medical doctors are not charged with murder, and executed, for making mistakes on their theatre tables where lives are lost while practicing their profession, why should journalists be jailed for practicing their profession?”
He noted that SLAJ would reject any attempt by the government through the ongoing Constitutional Review Process to populate the Independent Media Commission (IMC) with people who were not journalists.
Ransford Wright, head of Media Reform Coordination Group, noted at a one day symposium organized by SLAJ to mark the World Press Freedom in Freetown that journalists needed a conducive environment to practices and that government needed to demonstrate more commitment to the issue of press freedom beyond creating the relevant institutions but to also ensure that they operate freely.
This, he said, could only be attained when the government expunged the seditious libel law of 1965. He also noted that journalists needed to operate within the ethics of the profession in order for the public to benefit from the work of journalists.
On the part of the government, the deputy minister of Information and Communication, Connelius Devaux, said government was more committed to ensuring access to information as a fundamental human rights for all citizens. He said the action of government in making access to information open was to enhance accountability and transparency in the governance system.
“The government of President Koroma wasted no time in enacting the Right to Access Information Act in 2013 and to have recently unveiled the Open Data Portal in furtherance of government’s undiluted commitment to the twin concept of access to information and the establishment of Right to Access Information Commission which you will all agreed with me that is starting to gather momentum,” Devaux said.
He also noted that government was committed to reviewing the criminal libel laws but he could not indicate specific time when such review would take place. He encouraged the SLAJ executive to work with the current leadership of the Ministry of Information to ensure that the libel laws become a thing of the past.
(C) Politico 04/05/16
