The Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) in Sierra Leone has joined other organisations globally to observe the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2nd November as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ in a General Assembly Resolution.
The Resolution urged Member States to implement definite measures countering the present culture of impunity. The date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on 2nd November 2013.
This landmark resolution condemns all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers. It also urges Member States to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists and media workers, bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against journalists and media workers, and ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies.
Since 2018, the MRCG with support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the United States of America, has been monitoring and publishing reports on media freedom detailing cases of invitations, intimidations, attacks, assaults, arrests, detentions and prosecution of journalists.
MRCG’s tenth report on ‘Press Freedom in Sierra Leone’, which was published and launched in May 2023, showed that from the First to the Tenth Edition, sixty-six cases have been monitored, of which forty-seven of them were concluded, settled, resolved, dropped or abandoned, because of lack of progress; four were in court; and fifteen under police investigation/inconclusive/stalled.
As we observe the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ today, the MRCG reminds the Government of Sierra Leone that in March this year, it monitored the attack and assault of the Station Manager of Fountain of Peace Radio (FOP) in Moyamba district, Southern Sierra Leone, Alie Tokowa, at the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) office in the district allegedly by its supporters on the instruction of the outgoing District Council Chairman of the party.
MRCG also monitored the attack on the BBC Correspondent in Sierra Leone, Umaru Fofana, by supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC) party during the party’s press conference at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown in June 2023. He was officially invited by the APC to cover the event.
MRCG again in June 2023, received a copy of a letter of complaint from Ibrahim Alusine Kamara, Managing Editor of Salone Compass Newspaper, stating that security officials assaulted him, endangered his life and vandalised his vehicle during an incident at the APC’s press conference on 25th June 2023 at the party’s headquarters in Freetown.
Also, MRCG monitored the online death threats against journalist Musa S. Kamara, working for radio Democracy 98.1 FM from anonymous individuals on 20th August 2023.
This followed an exclusive interview he had conducted with the then United States of America’s Ambassador to Sierra Leone, David Reimer, on the post-election crisis in the country.
The MRCG also calls on the police to speedily investigate these matters. The MRCG also notes that issues relating to the safety and security of journalists go beyond politicians and the police, as there are reports of attacks on journalists from local authorities, youth and members of the public.
The MRCG also wants to remind media owners and managers that one of its reports shows that majority of the media houses lacked a safety and security policy and there were concerns about addressing the welfare of journalists.
These are all safety and security issues, the organization adds. The MRCG, therefore, continues to call on the Government, politicians, media organisations, media owners and managers, civil society organisations and members of the public to ensure the safety and security of journalists across the country at all times.
