Sierra Leone's Media Commission delegation in Ghana

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8-10-09

A FOUR-MEMBER delegation of the Independent Media Commission of Sierra Leone is in the country to explore the possibility of partnering media organisations to develop Sierra Leone’s media industry.
This follows Sierra Leone’s emergence from a long period of protracted civil war.
Since its arrival, the delegation has visited a number of media organisations including the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL).
The delegation is led by Mrs Bernadette Cole, the Chairperson of the Independent Media Commission, and includes Mrs Casandra Davies, member; Mr Agustine Garmeh, member; and Mr Christo Johnson, member.
During a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Ibrahim Awal, the leader of the delegation, Mrs Cole, said the commission was set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 and established in 2001 with a membership of 11.
The objectives, she said, included improving the level of professionalism in the media through the provision of training, encourage media pluralism, receive and settle complaints, as well as issue licenses.
Currently, she said, licences had been given to 80 individuals to set up newspapers, and that out of the number only about 25 newspapers had been operating.
Mrs Cole said there were also 40 community radio stations in Sierra Leone, indicating that the commission had the cause to withdraw the licences of two radio stations established by two political parties as a result of unhealthy practices.
“They used their radio stations as weapons to abuse each other. Coming out of a civil war, we thought it wise to close the stations down so that they do not create chaos in the country,” she said, saying that one of the stations which did not take kindly to that took the commission to court.
Sierra Leone, she said, was establishing resource centres for access by journalists as part of efforts to help improve their work.
Mrs Cole said they were in Ghana to learn from the best practices of the Ghanaian media.
Mr Awal, for his part, said the GCGL was ready to offer support to Sierra Leone to enable it to develop and improve its print media.
He said one of the success stories of the GCGL was the training and the re-training of editors for management activities, and that once that was done they would be in a better position to improve the media organisation.
He, therefore, charged the delegation to adopt that strategy, adding that “we are ready to partner you in improving your newspaper sections”.
Mr Awal said the GCGL had seen major improvements over the last couple of years as a result of the able leadership and visionary direction of its management.
From one newspaper, he said, the company could boast a number of newspapers such as the Daily Graphic, The Mirror, Graphic Sports, Graphic Showbiz, Graphic Nsempa, Graphic Business and Junior Graphic.
The General Manager in charge of Newspapers of the GCGL, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, said the issue of credibility was one of the factors that had made GCGL what it was today.
He said the GCGL was not aligned to any particular government and it criticised a government when it did what was not right, adding that “this is what is lacking in most countries”.
The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, said once a government was allowed to fund a media organisation, it would interfere in its activities.
The Daily Graphic in particular, he said, had been fair, accurate and balanced in its reportage, thereby making it a credible newspaper in the country.