By Saio Marrah
The President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, has in a written statement expressed disappointment at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for supporting what he called a “wrong action by Parliament”.
“We are further disappointed that the UNDP is supporting this wrong action by Parliament and even went to the extent of funding a two-day training for the interim executive and other Parliamentary staff without even bothering to understand the challenges of the PPG (Parliamentary Press Gallery),” it reads.
He said this while responding to the Clerk of Parliament, Umarr Paran Tarawally’s submission that the PPG is a “creature” of parliament and that the speaker has the power to constitute and reconstitute the PPG citing section 80 of the standing orders of parliament. This, the SLAJ president described was an attempt to ‘micro-manage the PPG.’
In a telephone interview with Politico, the UNDP Technical Advisor to the Parliament of Sierra Leone, former Member of Parliament, Rosaline Jariatu Smith explained that her role is to coordinate the UN agency’s activities in Parliament. She said in the previous year, during the UNDP’s project board meeting, the clerk of parliament highlighted all activities he had wanted UNDP to support parliament with, which include the training of the PPG. She also stated that UNDP never gave money to parliament, but rather procured all the materials for the training that included stationeries and even the canteen food for the said training. She denied knowledge of any impasse between the clerk of parliament and SLAJ, despite SLAJ’s assertion that the UNDP was copied in a letter expressing their dissatisfaction when the interim executive was appointed by parliament.
“The issue between the honourable clerk and SLAJ, I had no knowledge of it,” she noted.
She said the training was long overdue and that for fear of losing the fund, she thought it fit that it was high time they conducted the training.
However, she said it was at that point that the clerk introduced the new executive to her in a meeting “The…clerk said this is the interim executive and until SLAJ conducted an election, this is the interim executive that will be conducting the affairs of the press gallery,” she said.
She maintained that she made it clear that UNDP will support the press gallery and not the interim executive. “Not once did I say I will support an interim executive, I said the UNDP will support the press gallery, not an interim executive,” she said.
Ms. Smith therefore called on SLAJ to quickly conduct an election for the press gallery and that she does not want to be drawn in between what is transpiring between the clerk and the press gallery.
She also made it clear that she is not a staff of parliament, but a consultant attached to the office of the clerk and her activities are with the clerk and when such activities are due for implementation she will inform the clerk and discuss issues with him.
Ms. Smith noted that the training was not catered for all journalists, but for parliamentary reporters.
Nasralla went on to note that the problem started when they called on parliament to be part of a team to restructure the PPG. The SLAJ president added: “Now, in retrospect, I have realized that we shouldn’t have sat around the same table with Parliament to discuss internal issues affecting PPG. That process was at an advanced stage when Parliament issued the unfortunate public notice of 27th July 2021, announcing the reconstitution of a so-called interim executive to run the affairs of the PPG, when there is a duly elected PPG Executive in place, albeit being challenged by aggrieved members.”
However, he said SLAJ, Independent Media Commission (IMC) and Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) are genuinely working to resolve the problem.
Copyright © Politico Online (16/08/21)
