President
Kabbah Not Impressed With Old Independent Media
Commission
By
Yusuf Alghali
President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has expressed displeasure
over the level of performance
recorded by the previously constituted Independent
Media Commission (IMC) for Sierra Leone, the
institution charged with regulating the activities
of local media organisations.
The
President has always maintained that problems
posed by unprofessional journalism wreak havoc
on Sierra Leone's socio-economic situation by
discouraging genuine foreign investors from
engaging in mutually lucrative businesses with
the post war country.
Addressing
the newly appointed commissioners, after their
formal swearing-in at the Lodge Thursday 12th
September, the President indicated that "the
first time around" the commission did not
perform "as expected". He went on
to state that he could not recall the materialisation
of any of the commission's work plan during
the past one year, but hoped that shortcomings
experienced were as a result of what he referred
to as "teething problems" affecting
the IMC following its initial inception.
While
calling for such teething problems to be overcome
this time, President Kabbah urged the new commission
to "work together and build this vital
and important [media] profession", cautioning
however that the exercise must not be looked
at as a fight between the IMC and journalists.
Rather, he encouraged commissioners to "open
up avenues for the free exchange of views"
between themselves and media practitioners so
as to get "even the most difficult and
intransigent ones" to know that it was
every Sierra Leonean that stood to suffer by
the actions of a few un-professional and irresponsible
ones.
The
President reiterated that in the current global
information super highway, irresponsible and
negative materials published about the country
were bound to create problems, pointing to two
separate newspaper stories published today,
both of which he said portrayed Sierra Leone
as an unstable and backward stone age nation.
"These things do not help us as we are
trying to attract investors who would create
employment for our people," Dr. Kabbah
said, observing that there were good journalists
and bad journalists just as well as there were
good lawyers and bad lawyers.
President
Kabbah, who said he was aware that many graduates
and school leavers rush to journalism for want
of jobs, said government would be creating more
problems if it were to decide to prosecute every
serious incidences of journalistic un-professionalism.
"So we've decided to be patient and liberal…and
wait and see until the economy picks up again,"
the President said, hoping that things might
change afterwards.
He
said the job of the IMC was thus very crucial
to the type of democracy government was trying
to develop for Sierra Leone, re-emphasising
that government was keenly desirous of establishing
"professional journalism as an integral
part of the whole governance structure of Sierra
Leone".
-End-
