By Mabinty M Kamara
The Independent Media Commission (IMC) has announced the suspension of 12 media publications and radio stations over violations of its codes and noncompliance to penalties for those breaches.
In a statement, the media regulator said the suspensions,which took immediate effect,were occasionedby the failure of the affected institutions to meet its board’s decision for various complaintsit had received and ruled on.
Among the publications suspended were the Spectator, Weekly Express, Prime Times, and Shining Star newspapers. The others are The Times Sierra Leone, Metro, Blade, African Champion, News Watch, Torchlight, and Sierra Express Media newspapers.
The affected radio stations were Citizen Radio, Radio Mankneh in Makeni, and Eagle Africa Radio.
Two of the radio stations: Eagle Africa and Citizen, are owned by journalist David Tam-Baryoh who is himself a familiar subject matter at the IMC complaint board. Mr Baryoh did not respond to a call or text message from Politico.
The Times Sierra Leone is one of the newest publications in a country awash with newspapers. Its publisher, Salieu Tejan Jalloh, declined to comment when contacted by Politico.
Alie Sesay, Acting Editor of the Torchlight newspaper, which is published by former deputy minister of Internal Affairs, Sheka Tarawallie, did not get back to us, as he’d promised, by press time.
The IMC, which is mandated to regulate the media industry in the country, said the suspensions shall be enforced until affected media institutions comply with the board’s decisions accordingly.
“Failure to adhere to this directive by these media institutions would trigger legal proceedings to effect suspension,” it said.
But some of the suspended media institutions have already expressed defiance.
The Managing editor of the Blade newspaper, Bampia James Bundu, said they would go to court over the issue. Bundu told Politico that their problem with the Commission had to do with an article on a ‘rubber stamp parliament’ they published which the parliament of Sierra Leone found offensive.
The paper was fined Le2 million, according to Bundu. But he said they were not satisfied with the IMC ruling and refused to pay. He said at that time they decided to go to court, but that the Commission pleaded with them not to go to court because it already had its hands filled with court cases.
“So we have forgotten about that. It was two weeks back when I received a warning letter from the IMC that if we didn’t pay our fine further actions would be taken against us for failing to comply…Surprisingly, yesterday we had a suspension letter from the same IMC that stopped us from going to court when we felt justice was not done to us,” Bundu said.
“We still stand by our article and we have consulted our legal adviser and legal actions are going to be taken against the IMC,” he added.
Santigie Kamara, Editor of News Watch, said an article he wrote about the Sierra Leone police landed them at the IMC. He said they were fined Le 2 million “even though we had concrete evidence for our article.”
Kamara believes the action by the IMC was motivated by a longstanding grudge. He said he’d written an article criticizing the Commission for assuming a political posture since the current chairman took office.
“I can remember that the days of Mrs. Bernadette Cole, IMC was somehow better, comparatively.
“That is why the executive of SLAJ and even we the journalists need to do something to get IMC to what it should be…And we are coming out tomorrow, suspension or no suspension; if the IMC wants they can take legal actions,” he vowed.
He added: “The Torchlight newspaper was among the papers that were suspended but today they were in the market. Sylvia Blyden has done it. When she had issues with the IMC, Awareness Times was out. And that’s selective justice. And we are all humans who believe in the rule of law. But again the law should not be overused by one individual.”
(C) Politico 10/06/16
