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Is there no end to filthy journalism?

Author: Puawui - Dr. Sama Banya - Freetown

By the time you read this the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) would have concluded its congress in the northern city of Makeni. At this moment of writing I am not sure whether “THE ETHICS OF JOURNALISM” was on the agenda or whether some one would bring it up under Any Other Business. There is a growing tendency among some newspapers on many a time to pick on an innocent individual who may be constrained either to respond or to take other appropriate action. Many times it is done out of malice while at other times editors would appear to have been hired by a third party to destroy the character of the victim who may be a rival or an arch enemy. Some time this year the managing Director of the National Insurance Company NIC, was the victim of undeserved negative publicity and it was obvious that it was being done at the request of or in collaboration with the board chairman. Any one who knows the NIC Managing Director would attest to his diligence to duty, his courteous disposition and in spite of all the publicity at the time, one would also have been correct to assume that he was an honest official. There is a krio proverb which says, “cow wey nor get tail, nar God dey dreb in fly,” meaning that a tailless cow has Almighty God to swat its flies off. The young executive who was arbitrarily sent on indefinite leave was only rescued by Divine intervention.

At the annual congress of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association SLMDA, Dr. TB Kamara who is in charge at Connaught hospital, presented an interesting paper on Telemedicine in which he referred to the telemedical facility which had been installed in the hospital. The doctor expressed concern that although the equipment had been installed, they did not have the proper infrastructure for it, nor was there an organizational or legal framework for its establishment and maintenance for its use in telemedicine. From the professional report of our two outstanding Radiologists, Haroun Dahniya and Len Gordon-Harris it is much the same with the CT Scanner that was supplied by Mr. Jamel Shallop and which has given rise to the unjustified and undeserved assassination of the latter’s character. Both Specialists confirm that the scanner is a sound equipment which had been manufactured in China on behalf of the brand’s owners Philips. Before that the young man had been ridiculed as crooked master schemer, a dishonest businessman who succeeds only because he bribes his way along the corridors of power. He is reputed to have 39 companies all of which he uses unfairly to bid for contracts. One newspaper alleged that not only was the scanner rotten but that Shallop had not paid a cent in duty or withholding tax on it, all of which has been proved false and baseless.

I saw that lad and his brothers grow up in Blama in Kenema district and subsequently in Kenema where they lived next door to me and under the astute tutorship of their late father Marib who was known to be one of the most successful and honest dealers in the diamond export business with an office in Antwerp. Mirib Shallop himself had been the victim of powerful business predators in the Siaka Stevens era; he was even served with a deportation order which was soon rescinded as a result of the many testimonies on his behalf. With the exception of Pious Foray’s Tablet newspaper, no newspapers dared to write negatively about such predators. With the exception of the editor of Peep who usually investigates such matters thoroughly but has failed this time one wonders whether the authors of the current attacks on Jamel could be in the pay of similar envious rivals? And here let me say at once that I have been very closely connected with the Shallop family from my first posting as Medical Officer in charge of the Kenema government hospital. The current generation looks up to me as a kind of uncle who has never hesitated to point out any weaknesses in their comportment. It is the duty of journalists to uncover dishonest deals and other ills of society especially those done at the detriment of the country, but they must carry out that responsibility with unqualified integrity.

A front page headline in its last Friday’s edition, the African Champion newspaper read “President Ernest Bai Koroma’s enemy no. 1 unveiled.” In the body of the article, his Excellency’s enemy no. 1 was named as John Benjamin because he had written that letter of concern to the President. On the previous day the story in the paper was that Kadi Sesey and others in the SLPP (my photograph was there!) were envious of Admire Sesey because we wanted the catering contract for Gertrude Karimu. That is one way in which charlatans associated with journalism deal with very serious matters of national concern.

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Is there no end to filthy journalism?

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