By Umaru Fofana
The last few months have witnessed the most worrisome times for the media and press freedom in Sierra Leone since the end of the civil war 12 years ago. That is a given.
From the random picking-up of journalists at the say-so of government officials by a police force that just cannot stop carrying out political diktat, to the latest slump by the country's cabinet as to order the closure of the weekly radio programme, MONOLOGUE, without regard to procedure, decency never mind best practice.
This is a plummet by a cabinet that any decent person will cringe at hearing. And it is a slump that will continue to hound this government and sink the image of this country for a very long time to come. A country where the government subverts state institutions and turns them into marionettes or ostensibly threatens those who work there with dismissal if they prove unbending or not complaisant.
This latest slump by the cabinet involves the direct order to a media commission that should be independent, to axe off a radio programme. Not only is this unprecedented in our country and must be resisted, it is shameful and abhorrent to even contemplate let alone execute.
The decision by Sierra Leone's cabinet, presided over by an elected president who vowed to uphold the country's constitution and respect the rights of all manner of persons as by law established, is the crescendo of an abuse of political power and authority, and a blatant attempt at muzzling free speech; something without which many members of this very cabinet would be somewhere else doing something else we all know many of them would be doing without political power.
What this action means is that those in power today simply cannot put up with criticism nor respect due process when they feel their rights have been trampled upon. It makes me believe any suggestions that unwritten cabinet instructions are sometimes issued to members of our judiciary to subvert the course of justice. Who would not believe that not least in view of what has been done to the MONOLOGUE!
That our cabinet would leave all the innumerable problems currently besetting our nation - from corruption allegations surrounding state officials to Ebola tearing our nation apart largely due to the lack of leadership shown in the fight - to devise ways of banning the MONOLOGUE radio programme is shocking, foolish and ludicrous. If this does not spell the lowest for a country whose president puts up the swagger of a respecter of basic freedoms, then nothing else does.
Let us for a minute agree that David Tam-Baryoh said what he should not have said on his programme - I have heard a few malicious things said on his programme and we all have been victims of that by many a journalists - it does not still take away the fact that there are legal and laid down means of seeking redress by any aggrieved party. And those means do not include such arbitrary use of raw power.
By the admission of the information minister yesterday on a local radio station, the government had filed a complaint to the Independent Media Commission but they did not feel pleased with its outcome. Balderdash! If we all had the power to ensure things went our own way obligatorily you would imagine what this nation would turn into - lawless and vindictive. That is what this decision by the cabinet to order the IMC to act at its behest portends. My solution: Liquidate the IMC! It is meaningless! Journalists have been found liable by the IMC most of whose commissioners are their colleagues - now or at some time in the past. Have they done anything untoward for that?
But in all of this the IMC is not blameless. When President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah wanted to appoint a journalist outside the civil service to become an information attaché abroad, the Public Service Commission as constituted then stood up to him and said it was wrong and lacking in procedure. They asked the then president to go ahead and do as he pleased - by appointing the official - but that the PSC would not rubberstamp a wrong decision and follow a wrong procedure. That is what is called standing up against what is wrong, no matter who does it.
By their own admission, the IMC were ordered to shut down MONOLOGUE. They lacked the spine to say "NO!" to such wrongful and wicked order. They should have refused to carry out such a wrong command and let the president and his cabinet issue the direct ban albeit temporarily. It sounds familiar? That is what Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana did when he wrongfully closed down the two political party radio stations. Desirable as that might have been to many, it was done in the wrong way. And remains wrong today. And always will. Again shamefully, the IMC did not come out to denounce that action by the vice president, which, like the cabinet order to ban a programme, has become a precedent some future politicians would use perhaps against those who are supporting it.
The trouble is, this country is going down such a slippery slope that people who should stand up for what is right kowtow at the earliest threat of dismissal. That is even when they have security of tenure. Where is your conscience! Such skittish behaviour not only lessens the coward's dignity, it turns a saint into a monster and a democrat into a dictator.
Apparently I broke the news on my Facebook wall on the banning of MONOLOGUE. In a matter of minutes it had been copied and sent via Whatsapp. It went viral. Not long after I called the Monologue presenter, David Tam-Baryoh. And we agreed to meet with our common friend. After our meeting and following a few calls that I put through, I was left with the impression that the temporary ban of the programme was just a dress rehearsal. More things are being planned against the media. We are ready for them. After all we know that one cannot be an arctic explorer without expecting a frostbite.
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists should come out and resist this phony ban. Whether or not Tam-Baryoh wishes to let sleeping dogs lie, SLAJ should take action or else it becomes precedence for future abuses.
That said, I think Monologue is such a ritual to many people in this country that it needs some reinvention. The programme's content is sometimes full of opinions and innuendoes that cannot be substantiated or are even untrue. And judging by the gullibility of a significant number of our populace, such can be unfair to people who are topics of discussion. And as this latest action has shown, you can praise some of these people but when their interests conflict with one thing that you do or say, even if in the interest of the public, they become erratic and abusive and bullish and seek to suppress or even oppress you. My appeal, let MONOLOGUE be transformed to DIALOGUE where all under the microscope can have their right of reply.
(C) Politico 08/07/14
