By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Repealing a law is not easy, no matter how obnoxious the law is. Our quest as journalists to repeal Part 5 of the 1965 Public Order Act which deals with Criminal Libel, has taught everyone how hard it can be. Fifty-five years is how long it has taken for journalists to be called to the table and negotiate the repeal.
“On the international level, the criminal libel laws are an embarrassment to this country and it will continue to be so until you repeal them,” President of Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, said.
“By keeping this law on our book, we are violating 12 other international conventions to which Sierra Leone are a member, thereby tarnishing our democratic credentials. Once we repeal this law then we will be in conformity with those laws,” Minister of Information, Mohamed Rahman Swarray, said.
These two statements set the tone for the engagement proper. Nasralla and Swarray are on course to be the two who finally got this repeal done. They are not the only ones though, behind the scenes so many other people have contributed over the decades. But the road is still long and steep.
By now talking about the engagement on Monday might look stale, after the bill was brought to the chamber for some thorough scrutiny on Thursday, July 16. But it is not, because it will be hard to understand what happened on Thursday if you haven’t followed Monday’s engagement. It is very important to follow the process at every step of the way.
And perhaps by breaking down every complex detail of the engagement is in a way saying too much about an ongoing legislative process. Perhaps I am even scraping too close to contempt, but I can’t help but tell every chapter of what seems like a historic process 55 years in the making.
The debate proper
Last Monday, journalists and other media professionals were all packed in a room with lawmakers to negotiate the fine details of the amended IMC (Independent Media Commission) Act. This bill will most certainly be a replacement of the repealed law, no matter how the language is sanitized.
This was a Pre-Legislative meeting. In the room were two former Ministers of Information and the current one. Two past presidents of SLAJ and of course the current one, were all in attendance. This tells you a lot about the significance in the room.
A huge part of the discussion on the day was about how to empower the IMC so that it can serve as a safeguard in the post Criminal Libel law era. “This safeguard was demanded by the people,” as Leader of Government Business, Martin Nyuma, puts it.
“The IMC has to be rebooted and strengthened so it will be able to promote professional journalism,” Minister of Information, Mohamed Rahman Swarray said.
The last bill to repeal the Criminal Libel law was kicked out of parliament after its time had elapsed. That created quite a stir, especially among journalists.
Monday’s session was a reboot of the entire process. And perhaps in hindsight, one will say this process deserved a reboot. Because all those points that were raised in that three hour long session are serious enough to thwart this whole repeal process.
The IMC bill has some sticky points which the IMC Chairperson himself, George Khoryama, struggled to defend at times; one of those sticky points being that journalists don’t want a lawyer to be the chairman of their regulatory body - IMC. “Just as journalists will not be the chairperson for lawyers in their own profession,” former SLAJ President, Umaru Fofana said.
The next point is about allowing IMC to audit the finances of media institutions. The IMC bill, if passed as it is, will give the regulator powers to check the books of media institutions at any time of the year.
“Is IMC an audit firm?” former SLAJ President, Kelvin Lewis asked.
“What is their business with auditing? This is not public money, it’s a private business,” he added.
Fofana added: “If the future IMC chairman does not like a newspaper, they will be visited (for audit) 15 times in one week.”
Lewis is the owner of one of the biggest newspapers in the country, Awoko. And Fofana is the Chief Executive of Free Media Group, publishes Politico Newspaper.
Asked why they needed the function to audit finances, the IMC Chairman stuttered and spoke about their delayed subvention instead.
By the end of the day, the debate slowly became journalists versus IMC.
Because for journalists to practice much more freely, they know they have to fight against some of the new and old things in the IMC bill. Their fate is tied to that IMC bill. Nelson Mandela’s quote - “I am the master of my fate and captain of my destiny,” can’t be true in this context.
Whiles the debate about IMC’s audit function was going on, the Chairman of the Legislative Committee, Hindolo Ngevao, suggested that media houses be insured as requirement for them to operate. He said, this will also ensure that they would be able to pay whatever fine they are charged with by a civil court.
A lawyer who works for the IMC, Ansu Lansana, even said once media houses transition into companies, they could be prevented from criminal action because they will then be covered by “the veil of incorporation”.
In responding to Ngevao, Lewis said: “The civil suit does not have a cap, meaning someone can be fined as high as Le 2billion; so, if you go to insurance company and tell them to insure your paper, they will ask you to pay Le 1billion as premium. The premium is really high, virtually all newspapers will close because none of them can raise that money.”
Fofanah added: “We attempted to review our rate card a while back and it was met with serious resistance from advertisers. We sell a paper for Le2000, vendors buy it for Le1000, and we only make Le 1000 from each paper. This is not a very lucrative business. If you continue to suggest these ideas, we will either give into corporate and political interests or we will die.”
The newspaper market is already crowded as it is with over 100 registered papers for a rapidly declining newspaper clientele. More newspapers means competition for advertising is tougher. Advertising revenue for most papers has even dropped since COVID-19. So when you take all this in to consideration, then you will understand why these two were so vocal; because their news enterprises, being two of the biggest, have a lot more to lose than others. So this is not just a fight for free speech, but also one for economic sustainability.
The debate around all these contentious issues was tough and at times even a bit heated. For example; when the Chief Executive of Sierra Eye Magazine, Basita Michael, accused the Chairman of the IMC of “weaponizing himself with so much power,”
It provoked a five-minute exchange of sometimes contrasting view points between Mrs Michael and Leader of Government Buisness, Nyuma.
On some days that exchange would have provoked newspaper headlines like “Media owner clashes with MP in Parliament”. But not today. Journalists are holding out for a bigger headline like “Repealed!”
What did we gain?
This session gave a rare insight to everyone in the room the different shades of opinions, concerns that have been further debated on Thursday.
Ngevao said: “We’ve seen highly contentious issues, maybe the Leader of Government business will think about committing this bill to the legislative committee so we will carefully look at them. By doing so we will also be able to invite members of the public to have their input.”
Ngevao’s request was granted. Nyuma, on Thursday, ordered that the bill be committed to his committee and asked all interested parties to seat in on the amendments.
The meeting was later adjourned for closed door session for Members of Parliament (MP). MPs, whom we spoke to on the sidelines after the engagement, said the bill would be ready to be in the chamber “soon”. After which, it is expected to be committed to the Legislative Committee for some more amendment. All of this was fulfilled on Thursday.
The rest of the process can be as short as two weeks or as long as two years, depending on the pace lawmakers take. The Leader of the main opposition All Peoples Congress in the House, Chernor Bah, said: “We are not saying we will not expedite the process, but whatever speed we go with will be what is expected from the public.”
With the bill read and committed to the Legislative committee all within a week, the pace for now is just right.
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