From the Editor’s Keyboard

Letter to President Ernest Koroma

12 July 2009 at 04:00 | 659 views

By Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Bristol.

"I would like to conclude by calling on the Minister of Justice Serry Kamal to fast-track the review of the 1965 Public Order Act so as to rid our constitution of the criminal libel law that is only there to breed bad blood between the media and the government making the watch dog role of the latter, which is a sine qua non for democracy and good governance, a rather tall order to achieve.

This will help boost the government’s image domestically and internationally as a true respecter of the fundamental human rights of its people. This will make SLAJ’s case against it completely irrelevant and you will go down in history as the Justice Minister who made the repeal of the criminal libel law that has been there since colonial rule happen at last.
Ghana did it recently and we have all seen how that country has dramatically surged ahead. We cannot afford to lose the momentum of tolerance so far encouraged by president Koroma; we must win the battle for press freedom without which our democracy will be sterile."

Your Excellency,

That was how I concluded my commentary titled ‘Reviewing the 1965 Public Order Act: Why is SLAJ jumping the gun?’ published in the Patriotic Vanguard online on March 11 2008; it is now little over a year and yet the battle to rid the Sierra Leone law books of this most obnoxious anti-press freedom legislation appears to have only kicked off. It is indeed regrettable and scandalous particularly given the bubbling optimism that some of us had then about the new APC under your leadership to fast-track efforts aimed at making the 1965 Public Order Act, which criminalises libel, history. This optimism was indeed informed by your pledge in the APC campaign manifesto to do that and the relatively better press freedom atmosphere that greeted the first few months of your coming to power.

It was this same optimism that encouraged me to dismiss SLAJ’s move then to resort to court action to force your government to get rid of this bad law as ‘jumping the gun’. Looking at how all this has dragged on for a little over a year leading to the present dramatic stand-off with SLAJ declaring press black out on the judiciary I can now see that I was too optimistic. I was wrong and my SLAJ colleagues were right. It is now clear that journalists indeed now have a reason to be worried. So, I think, are the people of Sierra Leone. I am by nature an optimist, even in times of adversity, which is why it is difficult for me to stop hoping that you would use your presidential power to inject some sense into the judiciary and parliament to do something to end the stalemate. It is strange that the very democratic institutions that are supposed to remove the barriers to press freedom in our polity are the same ones that are threatening to keep them there. It is also strange that your office has been silent over this brouhaha between the judiciary and the press. This is bound to give the impression that you are gradually drifting away from your solemn campaign manifesto pledge to rid not only the press but the people and country as a whole of this outrageous law.

I have been encouraged by recent media reports about the performance of your government in opening up the country and putting in place much needed infrastructure from even some surprising quarters such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. I am however worried that all these gains would be lost in the sea if you fail to personally step in to reverse the ongoing imbroglio between the judiciary and the press in the country.
I am coming to you with this appeal not because I personally suffered many spells of arbitrary arrests and imprisonment in Sierra Leone under this same seditious criminal libel law during my journalism days and would hate to see other colleagues going through them but because I know the implications of not removing it and allowing the press to operate freely; this would undermine your efforts to end corruption and promote good governance which you pledged to be the hallmarks of your presidency.

You and your government had a chance of pro-actively fast-tracking the parliamentary action plan that was put in place and led by your honourable VP in the months following your assumption of office but unfortunately allowed it to slip away, and now you have been forced to play defence which is not good for a leadership that otherwise looks promising for the people of Sierra Leone. I remember you and your information minister publicly promising to do all you can to get rid of this cankerous legislation in the first few months of your presidency and so it is strange that it is taking so long to do something about it in a more pro-active way.
It is difficult for me at this point to doubt the reason for the persistence of SLAJ in asking for an explanation for the judiciary as to why it reneged on its pledge to deliver a decision in June 2007 to settle this matter once and for all. Why delay justice for press freedom in the country when as you know the press played a very important role in the first place in bringing about the change that ushered you and the new APC back to power? And moreover when you know that your goals of making Sierra Leone a better place would not be realised if you do not allow the press to operate freely within a true democratic context.

Of course I am not saying that there must not be any democratic system of checks and balances on media power to ensure that the rights of others are protected. All I am saying is that the state— the executive and legislative organs of government— must not be seen to be involved through dangerous seditious laws such as the criminal libel law. The judiciary must be able to be made independent enough to be used to protect the rights of others who may have been victims of libellous press articles. In such circumstances there is no problem for such victims to seek redress by bringing civil libel suits against the perceived offending press. This is what is happening in developed democracies and so I see no reason why you should not take the first necessary steps in getting there.

Your Excellency,

I still believe that it is never too late to do something as long as it is going to bring the good that majority of Sierra Leoneans would like to see. I therefore call on you to use the authority vested in you by the constitution to remove the institutional barriers that seem to be preventing the delivery of what I consider as the biggest pledge in your campaign manifesto. In so doing you would have succeeded where many others before you had failed, and you would see the positive impact of that in the rest of your presidency.

*Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw (photo) is Research Fellow, Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations, University of West of England, Bristol.

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