SWASAL strongly condems the ruthless and merciless beatings of four sports journalists by State House bodygaurds
On Saturday 3rd September 2011, at least four Sports Journalists were viciously attacked and seriously beaten by men in plain clothes later identified to be members of the Presidential Guard attached to State House.
The Sports Journalists involved in that brutal attack include Mohamed Fajah Barrie the President of the Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL) and the BBC sports reporter; Kemoh Sesay (Exclusive newspaper & Universal Radio); Sulaiman Storm Koroma (Radio Democracy) and Alhaji K. Tarawally (Premier Tok Radio).
The SWASAL President Mr. Mohamed Fajah Barrie received a cut in the forehead and was beaten to a coma by persons, who for now have only being identified as Sullay and Kabba of the Presidential Guard.
Mr. Barrie was then abandoned on the bare ground with blood oozing from his forehead and was later picked up by the Sierra Leone Red Cross, loaded in their ambulance and driven to the Blue Shepherd Hospital where he passed the night on bottles of drip and other medications.
The other three: Kemoh Sesay, Sulaiman Storm Koroma and Alhaji K. Tarawally, also received beatings sustaining injuries of various degrees and all of their gadgets including Digital Cameras, Tape Recorders and Microphones were either carted away or smashed by their assailants. All four also reportedly lost monies during the attack.
It can be recalled the four Sports Journalists were at the National Stadium in Freetown to fully cover the Leone Stars versus The Pharaohs of Egypt 2012 Nations Cup group qualifying match, and send comprehensive reports to their respective institutions at the end of said match.
Again, it is the normal practice the world over for Sports Journalists to conduct pre and on the spot post match interviews and take some photographs hence, with less than two minutes to the end of the match, Mr. Barrie and his other colleagues were negotiating their way towards the gate of the pitch’s perimeter fence when he felt somebody fidgeting one of his back pockets.
Upon quickly turning around to check what was happening to his back pockets, he saw a man (Sullay) dressed in white T-shirt, a khaki sleeveless coat and black trousers standing very close behind his back.
At this point, Mohamed Fajar Barrie immediately noticed his wallet and cash have been disappeared.
He politely requested for his wallet and cash to be returned or, will hand over (Sullay) to the police who were in their large numbers both in and outside the pitch.
Events then took a different twist at this juncture when (Sullay), according to witnesses present at the scene, grabbed Barrie’s Black T-shirt by the neck after making that statement even though the SWASAL President had on his neck the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Accreditation Pass, a BBC ID Card and a microphone with the inscription BBC on all its four corners.
Sullay was eventually persuaded by the crowds of supporters, other spectators and onlookers at the scene to let go the journalist so that he can do his job. He finally adhered to those clarion calls but without giving Mr. Barrie a heavy punch on the face.
All of a sudden appeared another huge man (Kabba) dressed like Sullay accompanied by another fellow (yet to be identified), who the very eye witnesses say immediately pounced on Fajah Barrie, kicking, punching and stamping on him whilst he lay helplessly on the ground without even having the courtesy to ask what had transpired between his friend and the journalists. “Don’t you know you are accusing an officer (Sullay) of being a thief?” Kabba was quoted to have asked, said another journalist present at the scene.
Sullay in turn turned around and start to accuse Fajah Barrie of being a thief instead.
As an affiliate member of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), SWASAL joins the parent journalist body and all meaningful Sierra Leonean in and out of the country to strongly condemn this barbaric attacks and beatings of our sports journalists in its totality, and fully supports the steps and actions so far taken by the SLAJ. SWASAL also reiterates that both officers be immediately suspended from the Presidential Body Guard entourage and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) respectively, so as not to attempt to either tamper with or influence any investigation on the matter.
Furthermore, whilst SWASAL appreciates the statement made by His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma for an immediate and impartial full scale investigation on the matter by the Sierra Leone Police, the association is completely apprehensive justice will not take its real and true course because, it is the same police who beat up the four journalists that would be investigating themselves.
In view of the above stated fact, SWASAL is admonishing The Independent Media Commission (IMC) Civil Society Groups and Human Right Organizations in the country to set up their own independent investigation body to look into the attacks and beating of those four journalists whose human rights were also trampled upon with reckless abandon.
SWASAL in the interim has written a letter of complaint to the Vice President Alhaji Chief Samuel Sam Sumana as the President of the National Sports Council (who coincidentally took the kick-off for said match), and also as Chairman of the Police Council.
The Executive Committee has also given a little amount of cash to the victims as help for their medical bills.
In conclusion, SWASAL urgently urge all radio sports reporters, presenters and producers and newspaper sports reporters and editors to dedicate at least 60% of their reportage towards the merciless beatings of our journalists until this matter reaches its logically conclusion.
The association is thanking all those who in diverse ways continue to support SWASAL seek justice on this particular matter and end the continuous beatings, molestations, humiliations and unlawful killings of the Sierra Leonean journalist.
Signed: Frank Magnus Ernest Cole, National Secretary General.
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