August 4, 1999
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
State House
Freetown, Sierra Leone
BY FAX: (232-22) 225615
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-partisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, welcomes the release from jail, on the weekend of July 31, of four journalists who were imprisoned on charges of treason in August 1998.
The four are Jipu Felix George, Dennis Smith, Mildred Hanciles–all employees of Sierra Leone State Broadcasting Service (SLBS)–and Ibrahim Kargbo, editor-in-chief of the New Citizennewspaper. The four journalists were among a total of 98 former officials and alleged collaborators of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), whose release was recently ordered by Your Excellency under the terms of the Lome peace agreement. This accord, signed on July 7 by your government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), is a welcome step toward peace and recovery after eight years of civil war in Sierra Leone.
At the same time, many of our colleagues in Freetown report that they continue to be threatened and harassed simply for doing their jobs as journalists. Most of the threats apparently come from former AFRC and RUF combatants (many of whom are still armed) and their collaborators, in retaliation for news reports perceived as unsympathetic to them over the past two years, since the first AFRC/ RUF military coup of May 1997. Some journalists have received death threats, even since the signing of the peace agreement, and some are forced to change houses daily for fear of being “visited” at night.
CPJ recognizes and welcomes the considerable progress made in recent weeks by all parties to the conflict. We recognize also that the task of reconstruction and reconciliation in Sierra Leone will be immense. We do however urge Your Excellency and all ministers in your newly-constituted government–including those from the RUF–to do everything possible to ensure that journalists in Sierra Leone are free to practice their profession without fear of reprisal.
In April 1996, when Your Excellency became the first democratically elected president of Sierra Leone in almost 30 years, you acknowledged that properly functioning independent media are a vital component of any democratic society. Your current Minister of Information, Julius Spencer, promoted press freedom actively at that time, as part of the non-governmental Campaign for Good Governance in Freetown.
Yet between January and April 1999, at least eight journalists were killed in Freetown. Another died in prison, and several media offices were destroyed. This violence marks an all-time low for press freedom in Sierra Leone. We now hope, in the Lome agreement’s spirit of peace and reconciliation, that independent media in Sierra Leone will be given every encouragement, and that the internationally-recognized right of press freedom will finally become a reality there.
We would greatly appreciate your comments on these matters.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
State House
Freetown, Sierra Leone
BY FAX: (232-22) 225615