New SLAJ Executive Meets President Kabbah

TUESDAY, JULY 27: Members of the newly elected executive of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), have paid a courtesy call on President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah at his Hill Station Office in Freetown.

The new executive, accompanied by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Prof. Septimus Kaikai, included Alhaji I.B Kargbo- President, Vice President- Marian Samu, Secretary General- Ibrahim Karim Sei, the immediate past President and ex-officio member of the new executive, Mr. Ibrahim Tayyib Bah, among others.

Introducing the new executive to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in the presence of Vice President Solomon Berewa and a cross-section of the senior cadre of the Presidential Office staff, Alhaji I.B. Kargbo particularly noted the inclusion of the out-going President on the new executive, which he described as a tradition SLAJ has adopted to effect smooth transition.

Alhaji Kargbo said that the thrust of the new executive is to involve as many people as possible in charting the way forward for SLAJ, and that any person wanting to write for or have a newspaper or a radio station must be a member of SLAJ.

Talking about the theme of the new executive: "Restore Respectability to the Profession," Alhaji Kargbo said the executive is concerned about the quality of people in the profession. He said that his dream is to have a journalism profession that has credibility like other professional organizations like the Bar Association, the Medical Association and some others.

SLAJ President Kargbo also made mention of the numerous problems the Association is having with some media colleagues. He noted that there is a crop of people who roam about the country professing to be journalists, but in fact do not belong to any media institution, be it print or the broadcast media. He promised to take steps so that those people that are presenting a bad image of the profession and the country can be sensitised to the need to be more positive and objective in their reporting.

Mr. Kargbo said that the new executive lays great emphasis on self-regulation of the profession and takes great exception to the unprofessional reports being carried in some of our newspapers. He said that the executive is elected to seek the welfare of its membership and at the same time has the responsibility to safeguard the ethics of the profession.

Talking on the relationship with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the SLAJ President promised to continue working with the Minister, particularly in beefing up the standards of Journalism in the country. He said that they would rely on his assistance in the area of training. "Colleague journalists need to know how government operates to be able to write objective reports about government," he said.

Alhaji I.B. Kargbo also promised collaboration with the Independent Media Commission (IMC), but added that the IMC needs to be made more vibrant. He also told President Kabbah that Journalists are also members of civil society and therefore SLAJ will from time to time be coming out with press statements in areas where government is doing very well, and in other areas where they believe government has made a mistake, which needs to be addressed immediately.

He also informed the President Kabbah that some Ministers and government officials are using media colleagues to tarnish the image of their colleagues for selfish motives. These Ministers and officials must be warned to desist from such acts, and that if they continue, the names of such culprits will be forwarded to the President in due course. The SLAJ President said that they will not allow their colleagues to abuse Press Freedom by breaking the law with impurity. "We should not allow anybody just because he owns a newspaper or radio station to harass public officials," he said.

Alhaji I.B. Kargbo assured President Kabbah of their continued collaboration, but reminded him of the Press House Project, for which government promised giving some assistance. The Press House is still at its infant stage and Mr. Kargbo said that the rationale for a Press House cannot be over-emphasised as journalists need a meeting place where they can address and resolve some of their problems.

Congratulating the new executive, President Kabbah said he was particularly impressed with the SLAJ policy of retaining the outgoing President as an executive member. He told the SLAJ executive that the press is a vital component of the democratic process and pointed out that if we want to put a good democratic process in place we must ensure that we have a vibrant press.

He, however, expressed concern over some misleading articles that appear in newspapers. For a country just emerging from war the press should play a very pivotal role in efforts to bring about national cohesion but also expressed concern over the image of the country the press is presenting both locally and internationally. The press, he said, should help to portray a positive image of the country by highlighting achievements made, instead of reporting only negative themes.

The President said he is willing to cooperate with the new executive but advised them to address issues as an institution, not as individuals.

President Kabbah informed the SLAJ executive that government is currently working on a policy geared towards improving the information sector, and that the SLAJ President should appoint representatives to liaise with Vice President Berewa who will head a small committee to look at the Policy Advisory Paper of NPAC and the Information Ministry, and see how they can be developed further in order to improve the information sector.

President Kabbah also noted the necessity to strengthen the Independent Media Commission and promised to consider the restructuring of that commission very soon.

Before the commencement of deliberations the President caused a documentary film on the attainment of Sierra Leone's Independence in 1961 to be viewed.