n 2011, Politico Newspaper hit the newsstands for the first time. That day marked the partial fulfilment of a decade-long dream and actual efforts by a group of concerned Sierra Leonean media practitioners who were concerned about the general quality of journalism and the socioeconomic situation of ordinary Sierra Leoneans and wanted to use the media to try to turn things around.
After over five decades since independence, Sierra Leone has hardly ruled itself as an independent state, depending almost entirely on handouts. As if this is not lamentable enough, even what is given us is misused by a selfish few in charge. And in our struggle to get things done as a nation, we have become divided along imaginary lines created by self-serving politicians who are the only beneficiaries of this status quo.
Unfortunately, five years after that first publication – in 2016 – we published our last edition in what we now consider the first phase of an ongoing experiment. This experiment is to prove that Sierra Leone is capable of publishing a world class news newspaper. In fact it is this dream of the founders of this publication that forced us to shut down after suffering deliberate target at the hands of government agents and business interests through starvation from advertising to sustain our publication.
The alternative would have been giving in to the desire of those people who targeted us, which was to compromise our cardinal role of serving as defenders of public interest.
Thanks to the generous support of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) through its Sierra Leone offices – we are back! And this time, we assure you, for good!
Through OSIWA’s support, today we can boast of our own printer – a state-of-the-art five-unit Speed Master. With this we say bye to the experience of “drowning” – a terminology in print media lingo in Sierra Leone which means failure by a newspaper to see the light of day after completing editorial work, due to printing problem.
One of the objectives of getting our own printer is to be able to have an independent revenue stream. This will eliminate our total dependence on advertisement, which is a bait used by politicians and corporate interests to starve the media and force them into becoming pliable.
At this point, we’d like to state here that our desire to hold public officials to account has not changed. It has in fact become stronger than ever. Having said that, we would also like to point out that we’d like to be seen as partners in growing our country, rather than enemies of government, as some people had wrongly viewed us in the past. We criticize those things that are wrong for our country. Full stop!
Money – especially ill-gotten wealth – is not what drives us. Our values and philosophy are what we need to serve the greater good of society. And these we can’t compromise on.
We therefore at this point want to also appeal to you all to join us make Sierra Leone a better place for all to live in. You can do so by patronizing our newly installed state of the art printer located at 33 Victoria Street for your printing needs. Proceeds received from that are what we will plough into our public service journalism.
We will also still look forward to receiving advertisement from both public and private partners.
And to the donor community, we can be a strategic partner in that we serve as a watchdog for your taxpayers’ monies poured into our country – yesterday and today.
For our own part, we recommit to providing you, the readership, with diverse views. This two-year unintended absence has given us the opportunity to review our operations and capacity. We have therefore reviewed our content with a view to providing you even more diverse views through various forms of reporting – straight news, feature/long form reporting, analyses, commentaries and guest write-ups, as demonstrated in this edition.
We have notably embarked on a restructuring of our editorial staff, bringing in new hands. Among others our major signings include some of our interns who liked our journalism that they always wanted to stay with us.
They are Mohamed Jaward Nyallay: he did his internship with us as a final year mass Communications student from Fourah Bay College between 2015 and 2016. He spent the last 14 months (from February 2018 to April 2019) at the AYV Media Empire where he served as a reporter, presenter and later Programs and News Producer. He has rejoined Politico as sub editor.
Alieu Tunkara and Mabinty Kamara, both graduates from FBC, also did their internship with us. They have found it difficult to fit into any other newsroom due to the liberal and professional practice they were used to at Politico. They are back.
We will continue to strive to maintain our effort to cover Sierra Leone beyond Freetown. We have therefore recruited fresh hands in the persons of Hassan Juana Koroma in Bo, who will cover the larger southern region of the country, and Prince Musa in Kenema who will cover the larger Eastern Region. As a matter of fact Prince spent a few months with us prior to the break, and he will be assisted in covering the eastern region by Steven Ngaujah, our new man in Kono.
We are still struggling to get a dedicated person to cover the Northern Region for us. Two attempts to do so proved inconclusive due to other existing commitments the satisfactory candidates had.
Our ultimate goal is to have reporters based in every district of the country. We decided to have a reporter based in Kono because of its uniqueness in the socio-economic landscape of the country and its restive nature.
The editorial team will be headed by yours truly, Kemo Cham, providing the leadership as editor of the paper with guidance from the management team which comprises the familiar names of Isaac Massaquoi and Umaru Fofana. This means you will get to read your favorite columns again: Bottom Line and Think Tank. For those of you who love the incisive gossip column TWITTER, it is sure to remain on the menu, as is the cartoon.
Abdul Tejan Cole, a onetime head of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone and, until recently, regional Executive Director of the Open Society For West Africa (OSIWA), is set to recommence his column: GLOBAL AFRICA, an analysis of events on the continent.
As usual, we welcome your contributions as guest writers, once they are original and strive to meet basic journalistic principles and standards. Please also note, for the guest writers, that we do not use syndicated write-ups, meaning we do not allow articles shared with other publications already, unless under special arrangements.
We end here with this quote as succinctly captured in our Mission Statement.
“Aware of the tribal and regional dichotomy that has permeated the politics of Sierra Leone, as epitomised by the only two political parties that have ruled our country since independence in 1961 (SLPP and APC), Politico aims to help de-tribalise and de-regionalise our politics for the amelioration of the plight of the ordinary Sierra Leonean no matter where they are or who they voted for.
“No-one is responsible for their being born into a certain ethnic group and must therefore not suffer for it. This is the only way we can truly rise from the ashes of war and the backward political system caused, sustained and characterised by the deep-seated rumble of corruption our country has long suffered from.
“This is a struggle for you, for us and for those yet unborn. So please join us.
“Long Live Sierra Leone!
“Long Live East, North, South, West!”
(c) 2019 Politico Online
