By Politico staff writer
President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, has at a regional journalism conference in Nigeria stated that media development bodies and journalists’ unions in West Africa should collaborate with relevant actors, including governments, to guarantee press freedom.
Nasralla made the statement whilst participating in a panel discussions on ‘Regulations and Spaces for Press Freedom Advocacy’ and ‘Media in West African Elections: Observation, Reporting and Polling’,
He told the inaugural West Africa Journalism Innovation Conference 2023 in Abuja, that with the emergence of digital and social media the traditional media has lost three critical functions which are rendering it irrelevant in performing its fundamental role of informing, educating, and entertaining in a factual, credible, and responsible manner.
“The threat that comes with digital and social media is the fact that we are fast losing our authority as traditional media. We have lost the privilege of content creation and dissemination; we have lost the important role of gate-keeping; and the critical role of setting the agenda for healthy public debate around national issues,” Nasralla added.
He said citizen journalism is gaining prominence, with ordinary citizens’ actively reporting and sharing news which often, if not always, comes with concerns about the reliability and credibility of information.
Apart from the usual threats, intimidation, and assaults perpetrated by security personnel, he said there is an emerging threat from political supporters and traditional authorities/leaders in local communities.
“When you put out information that is critical either of the ruling party or the opposition party, their supporters will come at you from all angles with various threats, labeling you to ultimately discredit you and your work in the eyes of the wider public,” he said.
He said it is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists’ Associations in various West African countries to effectively act as moral guarantors, be the voice of the voiceless, and hold governments to account because the memberships have been passionately polarised along political lines, and solidarity is a challenge.
“With the help of a section of the membership, the government wants to have you on their side, and the opposition party/ies want you to stand by them. So the Associations find themselves in a Catch-22 situation sort of, where it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to take a certain line of action or position,” Nasralla said.
The SLAJ President cited instances in Sierra Leone which just conducted national elections: “One set of members is calling upon us to condemn the results of the just concluded elections alleging that it was rigged and that democracy has been stolen. How do we condemn elections that we did not monitor? On what basis should we condemn? On the basis that you didn’t agree with the outcome?
“Another set of members is calling upon us to go and congratulate the president on his re-election. We say unto them that it is not part of our tradition to congratulate the president for winning an election, especially an election whose results the main opposition has refused to accept. These are the kinds of pressures we face when our membership have vested interests in the politics of the state’’, he continued.
According to Nasralla, the rise of influencers is also a concern for mainstream media, adding that in the recent elections in Nigeria and Sierra Leone politicians employed the services of influencers to peddle propaganda, disinformation and discredit not only their rivals but also critical journalists and civil society activists.
Commenting on the theme of the conference, ‘Accountability Journalism: Nurturing Innovation for a Sustainable Future’, the SLAJ President noted that: “Public interest journalism, which encompasses investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, and analyses in specialised areas like health, education, energy, technology and climate change, and holding government, public officials and big businesses accountable is dying as the media continues to gravitate towards political partisanship’’.
He said there is an urgent need to address this negative trend and clear threat.
“Accountability Journalism requires the media to point the search-light on society, government and private sector, to expose corruption and societal ills but the other side of the coin demands the media to equally turn the search-light on itself and do honest introspection. The media has to be first accountable and transparent in its operations in order to have the moral ground to hold other sectors to account. How do you explain the action by a media house that does not pay its workers and flouting statutory obligations holding a mining company guilty of same to account?, he went on.
Nasralla said there is a lot the region can learn from small Sierra Leone.
“The challenges are cross-cutting but in Sierra Leone, we have made some encouraging progress in the area of regulations, safety, and security of journalists, public interest media, inclusivity, media development, collaboration, working together as media stakeholders, and building partnerships, coalitions and networks,” he said.
He said people often limit it to adopting and adapting technology and digital tools into the business of journalism but it is not just about that.
He encouraged conference participants to employ dialogue and partnership with mutual respect as an approach to advocacy, stating the SLAJ’s success in the repeal of the criminal libel law in Sierra Leone.
He also called for the resuscitation of regional groupings like the West Africa Journalists Association (WAJA) that will organize and produce periodic regional conferences and publications highlighting press freedom successes, emerging trends, threats, challenges, and opportunities.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (31/07/23)
