Journalists for Human Rights

More children in northern Sierra Leone are going hungry because of the Global Food Crisis.

The food crisis which is causing riots, sickness and hunger around the world is taking its toll on Sierra Leone.

In the northern province, the country’s poorest area, women and children are suffering the most.

Numbers at the therapeutic feeding centre in Makeni are on the rise and villagers can’t afford to buy food.

In this report Alhaji S Bah takes a look at this growing problem.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (329)

Sierra Leone is still riding high following last August’s overwhelmingly peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections.  The country as a whole seems to have faith that next month’s local elections will follow the same pattern.  Yet with this confidence still comes a need for preparedness.

A recent rainy Friday morning in Makeni played host to one example of this preparedness as police officers from around the region gathered to brush up on election related skills.  From crowd control to VIP protection, law enforcement officials play an important, if not sometimes controversial, role in Sierra Leone’s election process.

Radio Maria’s Sellieu Conteh reports from Makeni.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (299)

Sierra Leone gets more then its fair share of bad press.  It seems that nearly every week a new study, list or statistic is published that places the country at or close to the bottom of the “ranking du jour”.

Perhaps most notably the country is working to shake the stigma that comes with being ranked the world’s least developed nation, which, according to last year’s UN Human Development Index, places Sierra Leone 177th out the 177 countries judged.  Conflict countries, Afghanistan and Iraq for instance, were omitted from the list due to lack of reliable statistics.  This however is a minor detail; for all intents and purposes Sierra Leone is world’s least developed country.

It’s seems rare here for an NGO to deliver a speech or report without mentioning this fact.  Choosing not to mince words, or pass up an opportunity for dramatics, those in the development community often bluntly refer to Sierra Leone as “the planets poorest country”.  The moniker gets tossed around so much I half expect it to be printed on the country’s currency.

Some of these labels are well founded and serve a purpose; some are skewed and seem instead to serve a particular agenda.  Others appear simply to be sensational, helping to further Sierra Leone’s reputation as a hotbed for underdevelopment.

A study released late last month by the New York based “Committee to Protect Journalists” placed Sierra Leone near the top of their “Impunity Index”.  Second only to Iraq, Sierra Leone has, according to the CPJ’s list, more unsolved murders of journalists then any other country in Africa.

I’m not disputing the validity of the study’s numbers, and I’m certainly not negating the right that local reporters have to safety and security.  But I do worry that Sierra Leone’s new standing as the “world’s second most dangerous place to be a journalist” will do nothing to help repair the country’s tarnished repute.  According to the study the murder of nine Sierra Leonean journalists, occurring between 1998 and 2007, remain unsolved.  The most recent case dates back to 2005.  While this number is unacceptable I do question whether it’s truly reflective of the current state of media in the country.

One of the main problems with the survey is that it fails to address whether the real issue is the risk facing Sierra Leonean journalists, or the ineptitude of the national police force.  Because the “impunity index” only takes into account unsolved cases there’s reason to believe that more journalist murders may well take place in other countries, it’s simply that their police forces are more successful at finding and convicting the perpetrators.  Having already had a number of encounters with the police during my three months in the country I’m prone to thinking that the core issue is more likely to be related to the poor quality of law enforcement.

The time period measured also falls squarely within the bloodiest years of Sierra Leone’s civil war.  Journalists were murdered during this time, yes, yet so were countless others who threatened the influence of the vicious rebel regime. Since the end of the war the study found only one murder of a journalist remaining unsolved.

There are undoubtedly a number of problems that plague the media sector in Sierra Leone.  The country lacks a formal freedom of information act, liable laws are too strict and the vast majority of working journalists fail to make a livable wage.  While these are important issues they don’t indicate a serious threat to the lives of journalists.  Instead the CPJ’s “Impunity Index” lays yet another unfortunate distinction upon a country whose tourism brochure could already read like a grizzly Stephen King novel.

As a journalist I’m all for letting the truth speak for itself, but the sad reality is that the truth in Sierra Leon often has many faces, choosing which to display can either help or hurt the image of the country.  While Sierra Leone’s new standing as the “world’s second most dangerous place to be a journalist” may not be truly representative of the nation’s media sector, it is indicative of the Sierra Leone’s struggle against labels.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (315)

Impressions of life and work in West Africa.

JHR Trainer, Rachael Borlase, is currently working on a six-part series about life and work in Sierra Leone. For the next several months, her adventures and reflections will be broadcast on CBC Radio throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this segment, Rachael explores her new job and home.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (191)

“In a country with an unemployment rate of nearly 80% it is hard to take seriously the concerns of those lucky enough to have an income”.  While the words of labour ministry spokesperson Edmond Y. Kamara sound blunt and insensitive, it’s hard to deny that they also make a fair deal of sense.

The problem remains however, with unpredictable wages and the relentless risk of immobilizing injury, workers cannot afford to pay into anything other then the immediate needs of their dependents.

-Mackay Taggart

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (257)

Vendors are disgusted with the filth at their market and say they will stop paying their dues unless city council cleans up its act.

The following radio news story was put together by Fatmata Kuwatteh of Radio Mankneh. As a trainer, it was my first opportunity to work with a female reporter. Despite Kuwatteh’s obligations to her home, husband and children, she was determined to research, write and produce this story.

What would have taken me one day of work in Canada, took us two weeks to complete in Sierra Leone.  Nevertheless, the piece was aired on Radio Mankneh and Fatmata Kuwatteh has been jubilating ever since

Rachael Borlase

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (273)

By Mackay Taggart with files from Joseph B. Bangura The modern library goes beyond simply books and bookcases.  It has become, thanks to the proliferation of the internet and electronic media, a way to connect and interact with the world at large.

Unfortunately the Makeni City Library is not yet a modern library, for it, like most buildings in the city, has no access to electricity.  However, a private donation, a hot Saturday morning and a sheet of solar panels the size a beach towel is about to change that.

Last weekend townspeople gathered and watched as volunteer Simon Willans from the Environmental Foundation for Africa mounted brackets, cables and the panels themselves onto the roof of the city’s only municipal library.

At a one time cost of approximately $2000 CDN the library will soon hold the capacity to run a laptop computer, a handful of energy efficient light bulbs and have enough energy remaining for limited cell phone charging.

A faulty inverter stalled the inaugural flipping of the switch, but the projects organizers are confident that, following the arrival of the new part, the system will be up and running in the coming days.

The addition of solar electricity has sparked plans for computer training programs and talk of possible public internet access.  The installation of the panels also provided an opportunity for me and Radio Maria reporter Joseph B. Bangura to cover a great local story.  It aired on the Monday April 7th edition of Radio Maria’s English language “Day Break Salone”.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (313)

A Halifax doctor and two of his Dalhousie medical students spent most of March saving lives in the world’s poorest country.

They were  touring Sierra Leone with ‘Rapid Test Kits’ – an HIV screening test that gives patients their results in just three minutes.

Rachael Borlase met up with the doctors while they were working in Makeni.

Reporter: Rachael Borlase With help from: Prof Marco Sessay

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (311)

How is it possible that a city that’s so wet has no water? SLBS journalist Cecil Nelson and trainer Kim Brunhuber take a look at the cause and possible solutions of the severe water shortage in Freetown.

Watch Now:

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (204)

Disgruntled refugees at the Buduburam camp have entered the seventh day of a sit down strike intended to draw attention to what they say are unsatisfactory conditions both in Ghana and in Liberia. The protesting refugees are women of all ages and children. Many claim they have not eaten or drank any water for nearly a week. They say they want to repatriate to Liberia but are demanding the United Nations High Commission on Refugees provides a bigger allowance to help them rebuild their lives. They are also asking to be resettled into other countries if this isn’t possible. Most are refusing to reintegrate into Ghanaian society. Bernard Saibu went to the camp to hear the refugees’ demands and produced this report.  With Files from Alison Lang

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (399)