GOVERNMENT AGENCIES KILLING THE SALONE MEDIA
It’s common to hear ministers and heads of government agencies criticizing the media for lack of professionalism and all that stuff. Most of the time they base their criticism on their interaction with a few journalists and end up making clay-legged generalizations that can be easily challenged and defeated. And they are good at that, a check round many newspapers would quickly reveal that government ministries and agencies are swimming in debt owed to newspapers in particular for all manner of advertisements. The debt portfolio runs into hundreds of thousands of NEW LEONES.
When newspapers are denied money that belongs to them, the good guys in the reporting field don’t get their salaries and because they have mouths to feed, they do one of two things:
1. They quit journalism and go to other jobs where the grass is green. That opens the way for untrained or badly trained guys to move in. It's natural for owners to want to remain in what little business they can do to put food on the table.
2. The good guys decide to stay on but completely abandon professionalism. Those are the people politicians complain about all the time.
We are not saying this is the only challenge that explains questionable quality of journalism in our newspapers but it’s a big factor. So let’s start by paying all debts because at that point there would be no excuse.
Many government agencies are doing a real disservice to the people in the way they place adverts. For example:
1. Their media officers ask for unreasonable rates of commission from newspapers. As far as we know, commissions must only be paid if an adverts agency is placing the material on behalf of their clients. Why should somebody who is paid to do that job ask for commission? Ben Keifala should be interested in this.
2. Some demand that the commission be paid upfront before the advert is placed. That means even before the agency pays up. Is that fair? Newspapers then lose everything when the agencies end up not paying a DIME.
3. There is no formula how those adverts are placed and in which newspaper. Money is the only consideration. Newspapers are struggling - all papers. Maybe the politicians have found a way to quietly put some out of business.
QUEEN FATIMA STEPS INTO THE SLPP LEADERSHIP DEBATE
Over the last SIX years the Queen has developed a reputation of somebody who is not afraid of speaking up on issues she feels strongly about. She has faced criticism many times but gives as much as she gets from time to time.
She’s been in the US in the last few days attending a program organized by the SLPP people in Dallas, Texas and she apparently waited for that even to enter the growing debate about who will succeed her husband at the end of his second term in 2028. For weeks and months now, social media has been awash with names of SLPP people stepping forward, some already have active working groups and active ground operations around the country. It’s as if this was now a full blown campaign ahead of the SLPP delegates’ conference to select a leader.
Actually, the Queen is not the first person to say the things she said at that meeting but coming from her was surely going to get people talking even more. We just listened to a supporter of one of the potential aspirants, essentially asking the Queen to mind her business.
1. The Queen told the SLPP faithful out there not to get carried away this early and urged them to concentrate on the BIG 5 agenda for now. Does she really think those people in the room were totally on her side?
2. We ask because we know that one of those building teams on the ground now actually paid some cash towards organizing the program she attended.
3. Was that why she encouraged them to take any money offered to them by potential aspirants but refuse to be swayed by the size of the wallet?
4. Has the queen not shattered all of what some people have been saying in small communities around this country? Well, we’ve heard that the Queen has endorsed some of the aspirants. Next time they turn up in our community we will play that Dallas speech to them.
ANOTHER RAINY SEASON: SAME STORY IN FREETOWN
It’s July again and we are in the middle of the annual rainy season facing the same challenges year on year. Homes, in fact whole communities are being flooded out in Freetown in particular, affecting mostly people on the edge of survival. Cities around Sierra Leone are also facing an increase in armed robberies as criminals take advantage of the heavy rains to distress people.
The mayor of Freetown has put a lot of women on the streets with brooms to clean up but the kind of brooms we see are just fit for domestic use. This must be changed immediately. We love their rain gears anyway.
Once again we have to call the mayor’s attention to mounds of rubbish being piled up in street corners where none existed recently. What’s going on? The mayor needs more personnel for her so-called Flood Mitigation drive. Clearing the clogged up drainage system is not a job for half a dozen or so people.
The mayor appears to be ignoring our persistent call for companies selling soft drinks to and water in single use plastic to be made to pay part of their huge profits towards cleaning after them. We cannot continue like this.
As far as armed robbers are concerned it is up to the police to deal with them. That means robust patrols in vulnerable communities, making use of high quality intelligence.
LAWYERS ON STRIKE OVER HUMAN RIGHTS IN GUINEA
Things are happening next door and we are not sure many in this country are taking notice. Lawyers in Guinea have gone on strike. They say they will be away for two weeks to highlight the growing threat to human rights in that country. The gripe is about people being arrested and kept incommunicado these days by the military junta.
The thing is Guinea is undergoing a transition from military rule and the people suspect that Col. Mammady Dumbouya may not be sincere with the process and is in fact involved in an elaborate process of manipulating his way to hold on to power. The civilian politicians who have been deprived of power all these years are itching to return. The junta itself is facing a lot of disgruntlement from within as some key members have become disillusioned after their expectations were not met.
People in Sierra Leone have to constantly pay attention to what is going on in that neighboring country. Take out the Yenga question for now and conclude that Guinea has never been hostile to Sierra Leone. There are huge migrant communities across the borders and all along our long and porous border people interact freely.
Given all of this, we should be able to use our friendship with Guinea to make the following points:
1. Col. Dounbuya has no choice but to implement his own transition plan in an unambiguous way and on time.
2. In this 21st century world, nobody should be detained incommunicado. If people are held on suspicion of committing a crime they should be provided with all what it takes to defend themselves – they should have access to their lawyers and family members. Democracy in Sierra Leone is not perfect but detaining people incommunicado has never been part of how we behave in this land that we love.
3. The junta in Guinea should know by now that trying to hold on to power against the wish of the people can only happen for a while. The last thing they want is for people to get fed up and decide to take direct action.
4. Today lawyers are on strike and their clients are suffering. When other professional groups decide to join in, it will be something else.
5. Anyway, we don’t know if lawyers can really stay out of the courtroom for two weeks. They are losing a lot of cash.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (29/07/24)
