Deceitful Journalism used as a camouflage to secure political appointments in Sierra Leone

Since the beginning of the Internet wherein the introduction of e-mail communication became very effective, journalists became so impressed and jubilant in transforming their news medium on line for their readers’ free consumption. But overall, this type of communication is turning the civilized world to a bleak situation by journalists who engage themselves in disseminating false, defamatory and deceitful information against targeted individuals because of jealousy, hatred or for self-aggrandizement.  (Photo:  Osman T Conteh, author)

Journalism entails ethics, self esteem and credibility. Therefore, journalists within this jurisdiction should maintain respect within their readers and to the arena of journalism. Those out side of this domain fall in the category of disseminating false information against individuals because of being carried away by egoism, lack of self esteem and, self reliance”. The world of journalism today has been infiltrated by opportunists and stooges who are not trained or expose to the field of journalism.  However, few of journalists are trained and uphold the ethics of journalism and are displaying their unbiased and professional know-how within our Sierra Leone Community.

There are few Sierra Leonean journalists that I do admire for their conformity within the profession and ethics of journalism.  They are in the likes of Mr. Philip Neville of the Standard Times, Dr. Sylvia Blyden of The Awareness Times, Prof. Joseph S. Sherman of The Salone Monitor, Mr. Gibril Gbanabome Koroma of Patriotic Vanguard, Mr. Sheik Umarr Sesay of The Exclusive, and Mr. Adeyemi Paul of Sierra Express Media. These people are wonderful writers, they write without sentiment but with substance, sometimes they surface in critical issues, but most times they prevail because they substantiate their work with facts and they try not to be bias also, they minimize publishing personal attacks this makes them unique writers. However, those freeloaders / freelance writers do write to sustain their livelihood “Survival “.  Most times they use reckless journalism tactics to target individuals with hatred, misleading the public against productive Leaders or individuals.

In Sierra Leone today,  members of both political groups suffer from tremendous attacks and humiliation from these reckless Freeloaders / Freelance journalists, most of them pretend to be members of the same Party,  though sometimes they lure attacks on their opponent, yet still they will turn around and attack members (RISING STARS) of their Party because of hatred.   They fail to realize that Leadership always comes from God.  I hope 2012 will change the attitude and behavior of some of our journalists in order for them to regain their respect from the reading public.

By Osman T. Conteh, PRO/Political Affairs, The Salone Monitor

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