By Saio Marrah
As Sierra Leone drops by 28 positions in the 2023-Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru has promised the government’s commitment to look into what went wrong for such a fall.
Jamiru was responding to questions at the Government’s Weekly Press briefing held in Freetown on Thursday 4th May 2023.
The deputy minister also noted that they as the government take the report in good faith while admitting that the publishers belong to a credible institution that is well respected.
Among the issues raised in the report, were threats against journalists by politicians, for which he said opposition political parties should be engaged in that regard as well.
On the government’s position on the issue of “fake news” Jamiru said, “You can divorce the government from it. It could be various players.”
According to him, the drop does not represent the efforts made by the government as it has ignored the gains they have made.
Despite the country’s low ranking from 47th in 2022 to 75th position out of the 180 countries assessed in 2023, Jamiru claimed that journalists in Sierra Leone can agree that the practice is more active today than ever.
According to him, the country remains on track with freedom of expression because they as a government believes it is the backbone of democracy, good governance, and peace, and that a free press is a democratic feature that a country enjoys.
Jamiru admitted that their international partners have urged them to improve media freedom in the country.
While pointing out that media poverty is not to be blamed on the government, he said the government is not only concerned about the freedom of the press but also about how the media can be economically viable.
He said this is because President Julius Maada Bio had reiterated that government will create a media ecosystem.
On the issue of media poverty, where advertising is the bloodline of media institutions, they may come up with rules on advertising, he said.
He also said the reason people are not investing in the media could be that some media owners do not want to open the space for partnership and professionalism on the part of journalists.
He said investors do not want to invest in a business wherein a court case could be brought against them that could incur huge costs on compensation and litigation.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (05/05/23)
