By Alpha Abu
The President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla says the recently constituted interim executive of journalists covering proceedings in the house of parliament would not be recognised by the association.
Speaking yesterday afternoon to Politico on the issue, Nasralla said Parliament had no right to select an interim executive for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery as there was already in place an executive representing the press corps in the house.
He spoke about consultations the Independent Media Commission, the Office of the Clerk and SLAJ had on the issue of accreditation and other challenges the media practitioners assigned there had faced. Nasralla said the discussions resulted in a general consensus that led to the formation of a Reformation Committee that was to address the challenges encountered by the journalists, the drafting of a revised constitution, and preparing of a report including recommendations that would have been submitted to SLAJ.
According to Nasralla, all the parties involved in the process were to have addressed matters contained in the report but said they as an association were surprised to see the clerk’s office put out a statement acknowledging the composition of an interim executive. He asserted that SLAJ had looked forward to the report from the Reformation Committee that the association would have acted on, including conducting a “democratic election”. “Parliament has no right to interfere in this”, Nasralla pointed out. He stated that he had reached out to some of the journalists named in the interim body that he said denied to have given their consent in having their names included. For others that agreed, he said they have been told of betraying SLAJ and ordered to withdraw themselves from that interim executive.
“We have reached the authorities in parliament requesting that they advise the office of the clerk to withdraw the controversial public notice and instead consult SLAJ and IMC for an amicable solution to the problem. We will never recognise that body set up by the office of the clerk, that’s out of the question’’, the SLAJ President insisted.
The disputed notice dated 27 July 2021, bearing the letterhead of the clerk’s office and circulated on social media contained the names of 12 journalists from various media houses, that the notice stated, were members of an interim executive of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (30/07/21)
