By Umaru Fofana
Shortly after he had been elected President of the United States, Bill Clinton warmed his way into the heart of journalists in a way hardly any President before him had done. At his first press conference he asked his media advisers to identify the country's main journalists he had been reading in the papers but did not know personally. In the US, print media journalists are among the most respected – if not the most respected of the trade.
Using his monitor in his Oval Office, the President and his media advisers identified some of the biggest hitters he had been reading but could not put a face to. Once he had rehearsed over and over, he went to the briefing room and read out his prepared statement. That was followed by questions.
Some of the journalists who wanted to ask questions were pleasantly shocked when the President would call them by their names to ask questions. That and then began a love affair between President Clinton and the US media which, arguably, only the Monica Lewinsky scandal scuppered. This is what good media advisers in the Presidency would do for their boss. Not mislead him by vilifying or even publicly attacking other colleagues if only to please him.
In my lifetime, and I have been around for a while, there has been no Sierra Leonean President who has courted the media as much as Ernest Bai Koroma has done. No thanks to any media advisers. He has done so almost single-handedly. When he was in the opposition he had an affectionate relationship with a good number of journalists. He capitalised on the natural tendency for the media to side with the opposition to carve a relationship for himself. As he has probably realised, the longer he stays in power the more that relationship has the tendency to fray at the edges; unless of course he has sleek media operators and unless he puts these operatives under control, operatives who seem to be operating as freelancers at present.
President Koroma, in apparent show of the belief he has in the competency of the journalist or in a bid to compromise them – or both – has appointed more journalists into public office than anyone else before him. From being appointed ministers to press attaches to membership to Parastatals. This may have made a good number of journalists become so politically ambitious to the extent of betraying their profession if only to get rewarded with a job. But it has also made journalists feel liked by the President even if not by the presidency.
In addition president Koroma has created a Directorate of Communication at State House, plus he recently appointed a Media Adviser. It all sounds fine. But the lack of proper guidelines and terms of reference for these PR men is having its toll on the President. As if to make themselves relevant, they are all talking or sending press releases which are either the same or about the same thing in different ways and in a disjointed manner causing embarrassment to the Presidency. This minute there is a certain press release that gets sent to you by a certain media officer at the Presidency. The next minute another sends the same release to you if only to create the impression that they are working.
One would imagine that the Directorate of Communication at State House should be empowered to be able to coordinate all of this. How about him doing a concept paper restructuring the information and communication flow in and around State House and setting up a team that listens to and takes instructions from him? But how can that happen when a good number of staff are not there because they are qualified or competent but because they are a friend of a friend of a friend.
That coordination cannot easily come about when the department is disconnected from the Minister of Information and his deputy both of whom are Co-spokesmen of Government, which extends to the presidency. There is a Deputy Government Spokesman as well and what does he do or what does anyone know about him? Or why is he even there? So one wonders what his own job description is – if anything.
But back to the Directorate of Communication at State House, he should operate an office that must ensure that all releases and statements from or about the Presidency are vetted by him; otherwise who is held responsible for such releases when they go awry like the one issued by the new Presidential Media Adviser who sounded to be beating his chest in a press release about some alleged opposition members who'd crossed carpet to the ruling party and decided to burn opposition t-shirts at an apparent presidential function at Lokomassama? No-one was reprimanded let alone buts kicked for it. If that had been vetted it would not have caused the scandal it has brought about in the eyes of those who like decency in politics.
The President's PR men should be reminded that the state pays them, not the president personally. They should, in their overzealousness not blur the line. The idea of sending press releases deriding opponents and attacking them virulently on unsubstantiated allegations – or even telling or writing lies about them is a faux pas. But the president can save himself and the government from all of this. He should appoint people based on merit. He should ensure they are needed and not wanted. They are not undermined by those who feel they are closer to the President or close to someone close to him.
Unisa Sesay is a career media person. He should not be relegated to appearing only on the watered down Inside The Media programme on what is still, ostensibly and effectively, a state-controlled media. But he should also do himself a favour by doing what he can and should do...and not what makes people think he is doing something good.
Next week, all about the Senegal election
