By Alhaji Jalloh, Freetown.
As at Monday, three senior fellow journalists have been nominated for the presidency of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) after the close of nominations last Saturday. The Executive Editor of Standard Times newspaper, Philip Neville, who was Vice President and acted as President of the Association after the incumbent President Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo was appointed as Minister of Information and Communications. Ibrahim Karim Sei, who served as Secretary General of the Association for two terms, is also running for the presidency but fears that "the election has the potential to split SLAJ membership, especially in the provincial areas because it is alleged that some candidates are giving money for votes." The third contestant is BBC’s Umaru Fofana, who many are now referring to as "SLAJ’s Obama".
Notwithstanding, there are allegations about the central government supporting one of the three aspirants for the SLAJ presidency. There are also allegations that when one of the three aspirants visited the second city of Bo sometime ago, he claimed to members that a presidential candidate is having the full backing of the APC Government and has been sponsored to dole out money to win the votes of colleague journalists, allegations that have been dismissed by Information and Communication Minister, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. Well, I don’t want to elaborate on some of these allegations but my advice is that, SLAJ should be a united Association. SLAJ should not be divided along regional or partisan line. Any member of our Association who attempts to do that must be making a terrible mistake. While governments come and go, SLAJ is an organized body of professionals for a joint purpose. As members of the Fourth Estate and watchdogs of society, and considering the dangerous conditions under which we operate in the Third World countries like ours, there is need for us to unify and protect our interests in order that we live dignified lives irrespective of ethnicity, region or political beliefs. In order words, I must reiterate that there is need for us to be united, to give helping hands to one another and refrain from the things that will bring disrepute to our profession; hence, the essence of having an association as professionals.
But be that as it may, many colleague journalists do not seem to appreciate the role of SLAJ in seeking their welfare, especially over the last two decades when the conditions of service for journalists have been classed as appalling and disdainful. Though a few journalists may have benefited from training programmes to build the capacity of SLAJ members, majority of them are yet to benefit from such crash programmes, which are normally sponsored by donor funds or journalist institutions abroad like the Thompson Foundation in the United Kingdom. In most cases, only journalists whose Managing Editors or Publishers are part of or close to the SLAJ Executive do benefit from such training programmes.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when the Lebanese Community and the Indian Consul was awarding scholarships to SLAJ, the so-called executives were very biased in the distribution of such scholarships. Most of the journalists who benefited from the scholarships were either working for government institutions like the Government Information Service (GIS) and Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA) or for independent media organizations whose proprietors were the backbones of those executives. But in the final analysis, some beneficiaries abused their scholarships when Journalism Certificate was introduced at Fourah Bay College (FBC) in the 1993/94 academic year whilst the struggling journalists who were without scholarships made it to the diploma class with flying colours. For instance, one of the three contestants (I don’t want to mention name) for the SLAJ presidency benefited from a scholarship solicited by SLAJ but never made the prerequisite grade for the diploma class. When all attempts to get enrolled into the diploma class failed, the man ended in the main Arts stream and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in what only God knows.
The point I’m making here is that SLAJ is not the type of professional Association that caters for its acrimonious lot. For instance, most of the journalists working for various media institutions are either poorly paid or not on salaries at all. Just imagine a Managing Editor who gives out identity cards to his or her reporters and says go out and fend for yourselves because I have no salaries for you; can you believe that? Yes, it is happening in the Sierra Leone media. Most of our colleague journalists harass or blackmail decent people in society because of poor conditions of service or lack of salaries ((Not all. We still have decent and professional journalists). They will be out for the rest of the day harassing or blackmailing both public and private officials and the so-called Managing Editors or Publishers will have little or no moral justification in controlling their behaviours. By and large, the unethical behaviour of these journalists is more or less predicated on the insensitivity of the so-called Managing Editors or Publishers to cushion their plight.
What is more disheartening is that the Independent Media Commission (IMC) is not regulating the media in a way that will protect the dignity of media professionals. The Commission is more occupied with complaints from the public against media institutions and their Managing Editors than drawing up regulations to ensure that journalists are well remunerated for the services they render to media institutions. Even the likes of Commissioner Augustine Garmo - a one-time Managing Editor of Frontline newspaper - who are aufait with the wretched treatment meted out to reporters and editors are reluctant to take up the issue with SLAJ. I surmise they must be satisfied with being out of the media mess and pretending to be working to improve and promote the integrity of the media profession and its professionals. But the IMC Commissioners - particularly those who know the plight of journalists - must do some soul-searching and face the stark reality that journalism will never improve in Sierra Leone if media proprietors do not remunerate their workers. Many of our colleague journalists have today abandoned the profession for mouth-watering careers in order not to die in abject penury.
As colleague journalists launch their campaigns for the SLAJ election slated for Saturday 29th November, let them realize it is not their election rhetoric that is a panacea to the chronic problems of the general membership; it is the vision of giving a human face to the Association that matters. We need a revitalized association that will cater for the general good of its members. We need a SLAJ that will compel all proprietors of media organizations to put their workers on healthy salaries and pay their NASSIT contributions so that they can live a dignified and pleasant life when they shall have retired from work. We need a SLAJ that will uphold and defend the integrity of the profession.
By and large, the enormity of tasks ahead is so great that colleague journalists should not pander to any form of sentiment in voting for the SLAJ presidency and the executive body in general. We need people of substance to bring about great changes that will benefit all journalists and bring respect to the profession. But we don’t need journalists who have been using the Association to satisfy their egos and make personal gains to the detriment of the general membership. We also loathe aspirants whose ulterior motive is to drag the Association into partisan politics as it has been rumoured by some journalists. We should be detached from politics in any way, shape or form so that we will be in the right position to better serve as watchdogs of society without being partial, untruthful or subjective in dealing with pertinent national issues that need to be addressed by the media. My question now after highlighting these problems is will Philip, Karim or Umaru be up to the task? Well, whosoever wins the SLAJ presidency will have a mammoth task to perform with regards to bailing his colleagues from the economic gutters and the unethical practice of journalism that has pervaded the profession. As I intend conducting exclusive interviews in the next couple of days with all contenders for the positions of President, V.P and Secretary General, I wish all of them luck.
(The writer can be contacted on +232-76-619-588 or email assijay82@gmail.com)
Photo: The author of this article, Alhaji Jalloh(right) and Information minister Ibrahim Kargbo last month.
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