SIERRA LEONE-MEDIA: Parliament Sits On Press

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, May 8 1996 (IPS) - Sierra Leone’s politicians have never been particularly cosy with the country’s independent press, but hardly any one expected that the newly elected parliament would restrict media coverage of the House a month after its first sitting.

But this week, just after the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) had celebrated Press Freedom Day, parliament passed a set of guidelines which bars the media from reporting on committee decisions or secret sittings of the House, and rules as contempt of parliament “willful misrepresentation and suppression of speeches of particular members.”

The penalties for violation of the code range from huge fines to the suspension of the licence of a paper deemed guilty.

The provisions were drawn up by opposition member of parliament, Kakindi Jamiru, and justified in terms whose ironic import was clearly lost on him.

“These are not new guidelines,” he told IPS. “In fact they are taken verbatim from that provided by the Honourable Mr. Speaker of the parliament of the Republic of Zambia against the background of a steadily deteriorating relationship between parliament and the mass media charecterised by mutual suspicion and mistrust during the one-party days…”

“We believe it is good to announce them here”, he added, “in order to avoid further clashes with the press.”

Jamiru’s reference was to a ‘breach of parliamentary privilege’ last week by the editor of the ‘Concord Times’, Foday Fofana, for an article which alleged that the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments was bemused over a claim by a ministerial nominee on his CV that he had got two doctorate degrees in six-months.

The paper wrote that the Committee was considering voting against the man, Salia Gbao, appointed by President Tejan Kabba to the ministry of economic planning and development.

Fofana was brought before a special parliamentary session where he was dressed down for being “irresponsible” and was told to go home “and sin no more.” The contention was that the Committee’s proceedings are held in secret and can only be reported by the chairman.

In a special commentary, the ‘Expo Times’ newspaper came to Fofana’s defence. “We concede that because of its delicate duties, the parliamentary sub-committee should be granted reasonable confidentiality, but surely the call for discretion should be more seriously adhered to by its own members.”

“Confidential documents relating to a ministerial nominee, when leaked by members of the sub-committee, are a precious find for any journalist,” the paper noted. “In any case, it is time enough to review some of these inherited colonial legislations which clearly go against the spirit of transparency and press freedom.”

The charge of ‘breach of parliamentary privilege’ was widely used during the repressive one-party days from 1977 to 1991.

SLAJ is torn between condemning the parliamentary guidelines that most of its members view as outrageous, and an increasing concern among others who regard the proliferation of tabloids since the end of military rule in March, as threatening “responsible journalism”.

A good number of the editors of the nine new papers that have swollen the ranks of the press here to 21 titles have little or no journalism experience.

“There are those who argue,” writes Siaka Massaquoi, a former SLAJ president, “that market forces should determine the number of newspapers in circulation. Yes, but the issue here is not that there are too many newspapers but that there are too many mediocre ones… There must be some form of control to determine who becomes an editor of a newspaper.”

As a result of the pressure from the established press, the ministry of information has sent out letters to the new papers asking them to show evidence that they are properly registered. According to the press law passed by the military, an editor must be either a university graduate or a holder of a diploma in journalism with at least four-years experience.