SLAJ President Laments

By Edwina Sia Janga

Whilst the media has been busy promoting and disseminating stories of institutions and other matters, it has woefully failed to champion its own position, which is very appalling, to say the least.

However, during the recent Presidential Cocktail, the President of SLAJ, Ahmed SahidNasralla, did not mince his words to tell President Bio about the true nature of things in the media. He stressed that “the media is on life- support” and there is desperate need to resuscitate it. He highlighted the selflessness of the media, fighting the course of others and living theirs untold.

“Your Excellency, the media is struggling and this is very serious. The media has been hit by real hard times, and it is excruciatingly difficult.

“Ironically you will not see this on the front pages of our newspapers or hear it on radio and tv. Instead, what you will see is us fighting the course of the MNOs: Hard Times Hit MNOs! That is because we are so selfless that we put the interests of other people above our own interest. We care so much about the many Sierra Leoneans that will lose their jobs if the MNOs scale down their operations and so we didn’t even bother to fact-check or cross-check some of the claims they were making. We just ran with their narrative ……But sincerely, we also care about the fact that the media is on life support and the MNOs and Mercury International are our only physicians for now,” he stressed.

As the cost of materials soar, the same has affected the media, with an exponential increase in the cost of print materials by the importers. Nasralla furthered that engagement has been on-going with NASSIT in respect of investment in the area of print materials that could be sold at cost recovery prices, but progress in that area hangs in the balance. As we speak, the cost of printing materials has skyrocketed and this has adversely affected the cost of production.

To make matters worse, MDAs have held payment for adverts published by the media for months, thereby making the government its biggest debtor. Another concern is the allocation of adverts by MDAs to media houses, often done in a rather discriminatory manner, as they have been done selectively.

“One of the recommendations from the investment conference calls for the introduction of a national policy on advertising. The government was also urged to introduce regulations for fair and transparent allocation of public sector advertisement and prompt payment for adverts….Sadly, Government, which is also posing as a physician, is our biggest debtor.

The print media, especially, is literally dying. Even newspapers supporting the government are on the brink of collapse. Even the party newspaper, Unity, is on the brink for lack of support; not to talk of the opposition paper We Yone,”Nasralla maintained.

The SLAJ President further called on the government, through His Excellency, to help revive the sector by supporting it:

“The government has to device a method of supporting the media. Other sectors are getting indirect support. Duty free concessions on printing materials, for example, will encourage business men to invest in the printing business. But we also want to get involved in our own business of importing newsprints, foils, inks, etc. and we have been talking to NASSIT about this for several years now. The Government donating one or two modern printing presses to SLAJ for use on a cost-recovery basis will help greatly.

The truth is some form of help must come from the government. If that is not forthcoming, a good many of the newspapers will close down” the SLAJ President enjoined.

As the year comes to an end, it is hope that the government will ponder on the request by the media for investment, considering the pivotal role the media plays and will be playing in the next few months leading to the elections in 2023.

“Less than a month we will be into an Elections year, and the unfortunate incidents of August 10th are clear indications that the media (traditional and social) will be the battlefield for the elections….All the more reason that Government should invest in communication infrastructure. It doesn’t matter what accomplishments you have made if you don’t take it to the public or communicate it to the public in a way they understand, it means nothing. There should be some level of independence in the transmission of government information.

The MIC and its sub agencies (IMC, RAIC, SLBC, etc.) should be well-resourced to be able to perform efficiently and effectively” he furthered.