By Mustapha Sesay
A show down between the media regulator and the umbrella journalist association is eminent following the indefinite suspension slammed on two media entities.
The Independent Media Commission (IMC) last week ordered the popular radio talk show Monologue and the Democrat newspaper suspended pending investigations on possible breach of the media code of practices.
Monologue, presented by veteran journalist David Tam-Baryoh, is on the spotlight over allegations of incitement, while the Democrat was booked for deceiving the complaint committee of the IMC.
But the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has questioned the legality of the Commission`s move, threatening to take unspecified actions.
The umbrella journalist body in a statement said IMC did not state any provisions in its Act under which it took the decision ‘to suspend while investigating’ the Monologue program.
SLAJ also demanded a time limit on the suspension of the newspaper.
“SLAJ frowns at this decision and is concerned that such procedure is an inappropriate precedent, which must not be condoned,” it states, while calling for the reversal of the decision “forthwith”.
SLAJ also called on the Commission to speedily investigate the matter, warning that it “reserves the right to take any action should the IMC proceed in maintaining what can only be described as an illegal act.”
The association is also concerned with the fact that the Commission was mulling the idea of setting up an ‘Ad Hoc committee’ to investigate Monologue.
SLAJ opposes this, citing constitutional provisions that mandates existing committees comprising serving Commissioners to handle such matters.
SLAJ President, Kelvin Lewis, noted that this move suggested a lack of confidence on the Commissioners.
“I wonder whether the IMC is saying, in its present position, it is not competent to investigate complaints against media institutions,” Mr Lewis said.
IMC Chairman, Ambassador Allieu Kanu, was defiant while dismissing the SLAJ ‘ultimatum’.
“Nobody has right to give an ultimatum to IMC to reverse its decision, not under my watch,” he said in an interview with Politico. He said he was going to advice the board to stand by its decision.
Ambassador Kanu said the commission was created by an act of parliament, thus nobody should dictate to them what to do. He said Tam Bayoh had said that he was going to take court action against them and noted that they were ready to put a “robust defense” to prove that their action was right.
Meanwhile, the presenter of Monologue denied that he`d planned any court action against IMC. He told Politico that he had written a letter to the media regulator challenging its “wrong decision” by suspending his radio talk show. He said he`d asked them to reverse the decision by respond to his letter within 72 hours, failure of which he would consult with his lawyer for a “better legal interpretation.”
(C) Politico 01/09/15
