By Professor Ritchard M'bayo
There is plenty of evidence of hostility toward the press in Sierra Leone over the years. The heavy-handed approach in the way past administrations have dealt with the press is also well documented. But what is also true is that media practitioners need to do some serious house cleaning because we have not always met the public’s expectation in the performance of our duty.
The state must be aware that stringent press laws and regulations alone will not improve journalism. We can improve the profession through our collective effort and commitment to create an enabling environment for professional journalistic practice. What we need are progressive media regulations that are mindful of our democratic culture, including the public’s right know, the right to free expression of ideas, and above all the freedom of the press.
We must acknowledge the efforts by the state, despite its own shortcomings, toward improving journalism in the country. The government may seem to be at odds with the press sometimes, but everyone understands that no matter how unlovable our media practitioners might be, the state cannot function effectively without the press.
At this point, I’ll like give some specific recommendations that may guide state-media interactions, improve journalistic performance, and enhance the quality of media content in the context of our profession.
Recommendations
(1) Mount a Crusade for Excellence and Professionalism in Journalism:
SLAJ should mount a crusade for professionalism in journalism. From the early days of journalism in America and Britain, journalism was not always as clean as you may want to think, and the press was accused of things that may never happen in Sierra Leone.
In the United States, the two names associated with everything that was bad and unprofessional about American journalism in the 1890s are today also remembered for their contributions toward promoting professionalism in American journalism. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer (renowned benefactor of the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in journalism) were among the architects of yellow journalism that thrived on sensational and irresponsible journalism and on crime and sex.
In their days, media practitioners had little respect for accuracy; events were routinely overdramatized as we do in Sierra Leone today.
Professionalism will eliminate a lot of unnecessary conversations about who is and who is not a true journalist. We shall know them by the work they do and their commitment to the search for truth, accuracy, objectivity, and fairness.
While the immediate goal is the elimination of shoddy and irresponsible journalism, the long term goal will be the establishment of a stand-alone School or Faculty of Communications and Media Studies, with journalism as one of its constituent programs.
(2) Increase Investigative Reporting:
The Right to Access Information Act 2013 has brought a golden opportunity for journalists to increase investigative reporting. There is a general misconception among some journalists in Sierra Leone that investigative reporting is focused solely on reports that expose corruption and malfeasance by public office holder. That is only partly true.
The Gbamanja commission has comprehensively catalogued extensive wrongdoings at our schools. The press must insist and ensure that corrective measures have indeed been put in place and are working to make school environments conducive to learning.
You can make our communities safer. Look for the sinister; for things that are strange; things that don’t seem to fit. In other words, keep your nose, your eyes, and your ears to the ground for the unusual happenings in the community. Corruption and malfeasance in high places are certainly a staple for investigative reporting, but they are not the only concerns that require deep probing. Our hospitals, our colleges and universities, our schools (primary and secondary), the communities with mining companies, are all begging for your attention, for your help.
(3) Motivations for Excellence and Professionalism in Journalism:
There should be a system that recognizes hard work and excellent journalistic professionalism. SLAJ should institute annual Awards for best writing, best practices in journalism, newspaper and broadcast station management, for best leadership, etc.
(4) Refine the Media Battles:
Refine the media battles and aim them at the appropriate targets, the enemies of the state. Sylvia Blyden, Phillip Neville, Kelvin Lewis, David Tam-Bayoh, the IMC, and of course, His Excellency the President of the Republic, Ernest Bai Koroma – are NOT the enemies of the state. The enemies of the state and of the people of Sierra Leone are poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, disease, corruption, etc.
(5)Review the Public Order Act 1965:
Mount a campaign to review, NOT to repeal the Public Order Act of 1965. Review means: “a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary”, just as it is being done with our constitution.
The Public Order Act of 1965 is archaic, and in many ways dysfunctional in the context of the new society. In its present form, the Act is troublesome particularly to journalism, but equally worrisome to society as a whole. But we cannot, with all honesty, deny that some of its provisions speak to the intractable problems of contemporary Sierra Leonean society. For example:
Lawlessness
Public insults
Intimidation and annoyance by violence
Rogues and vagabonds (thieves and armed robbers)
Drunkenness
Carrying of offensive weapons without lawful authority
Throwing of missiles
Etc.
In the interest of the public good, journalists should take a more holistic look at the various provisions of the Act rather than selectively focusing on those parts of the Act that pertain to us.
(6) Diversify Reportage and Expand the Scope and Reach of Coverage:
Reporters in Sierra Leone are obsessed with the intrigues of politics and politicians. Diversify reporting and give reasonable attention to neglected but significant areas of public concern:
Environment (Environmental sociology)
Education
Gender, women, children and youth
Health
Corruption
Crime
Etc.
(7) Avoid Pedestrian Analysis of Complex Issues and Events:
Avoid pedestrian or “podapoda” analysis of issues that you don’t understand or that you are not intellectually fit to handle. Always seek the advice of experts, and remember that a good story is a product of direct observation, interviews and research and not imagination.
Speculative journalism has value, but it can be detrimental to a journalist’s credibility when our analysis and predictions are based on flimsy or no understanding of the issues at hand. Some times news sources will take advantage of your ignorance and intentionally mislead you; then you, in turn, will mislead your readers. For example: Predicting or second-guessing the president or public officials. Media analysts went awfully wrong in their predictions about the president’s running mate in 2012; they wrong also about his presumed cabinet reshuffle toward the end of last year (2013).
(8) Enhance your Intellectual Capacity for good professional work:
Seek continuing educational opportunities for professional enhancement. As journalists, we cannot stop learning; we cannot stop educating ourselves. Continuing education for journalists is a must. College is not the only place to learn… read, read, read, read and study on your own. The best journalists in the world are also avid readers. So what’s at stake for you if you are not an avid reader – your reputation, or as my students told me the other day, your “bongo” will be at stake when you mess up.
(9) Know thyself and understand what you do:
Who is a journalist? JullianHarriss and his colleagues have said it best: “Journalists are writers who deal chiefly in current events. As contrasted with some other types of writers who employ imagination in their quest for reader appeal, reporters must deal with facts.
(10) Be Proactive with Technology:
Expand the scope of your reporting through technology. Be proactive with technology – think about the future and how to capture new audiences – new readers, new viewers, particularly the “net generation” through social media.
Conclusion
As our new society evolves; as the democratic culture unfolds, media institutions and practitioners will come to fully appreciate their role as significant players in charting the future direction of our country. Our journalists are often blamed for serious disregard for truth and fairness and for engaging in personal vendettas against other journalists, public officials, and even against private citizens.
The press in Sierra Leone is an unlovable institution. But, given our collective cultural consciousness of our recent past – the military insurgencies of the 1990s, the civil war, the struggles to reconstitute the political order, our not-so- perfect democratic elections, the resurrection of a nearly failed state, and the survival of our media practitioners against the most perilous odds, and sometimes in the face of inflexible political authority – our country would not have been a safer place for us to live without our press and the men and women of the journalism profession.
Editor’s Note: Adapted from a speech (An introspective look at the Sierra Leone media) delivered by Professor Ritchard M'bayo at the Annual General Meeting of SLAJ 6th - 8 June in Makeni
(C) Politico 01/07/14
