(Toronto/New York) - In recognition of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, two exiled Sierra Leonian journalists, Lansana Gberie and Mohamed Bangura, announce the creation of an unprecedented fund to help rebuild Sierra Leone's media in the wake of its prolonged civil war.
Messrs. Gberie and Bangura, who are currently living in Canada, established the fund with the assistance of the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (CCPJ). The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York has joined the cause and will help with the distribution of the funds.
The Hellman/Hammett fund of Human Rights Watch has contributed $20,000 US, and the Emergency Fund of European PEN contributed a further $1,000 US. The CPJ, the CCPJ, and the two journalists will arrange for distribution of the funds to more than forty displaced journalists.
On May 25, 1996, a bloody military coup in Sierra Leone terminated the West African nation's first meaningful experiment in pluralistic democracy. The Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC), which overthrew the constitutional government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, embarked upon a campaign of repression against any perceived opponent of the junta, a campaign unprecedented in its viciousness and method. Journalists were a particular target, merely for reporting events. In the first three months of the coup, many of the country's leading journalists and their families were hounded from their homes and forced into hiding, beaten and thrown into prisons without charge. Their offices were ransacked, computers smashed, and many were forced to flee into exile upon their release.
About forty newspapers operated in the country before the coup; fewer than six survived, and they were forced to be compliant and operate in an atmosphere of intimidation made all too real by the frequent arrest and detention of reporters who simply asked "sensitive" questions. At least forty journalists fled the country, most of them living as impoverished refugees in neighboring West African countries.
Journalists are now returning to Sierra Leone, but have little to return to - their publishing materials were confiscated or destroyed during the fighting. And conditions remain extremely dangerous. Edward Smith, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Service, was killed in an ambush by junta forces on 13 April while traveling with West African peacekeeping (ECOMOG) soldiers, and several journalists have been detained, according to CPJ reports. In addition, President Kabbah's government has banned twenty-two newspapers on the grounds that they were not formally registered, according to British freedom of expression group Article 19.
More than thirty-five journalists have been identified as being in need of financial assistance. The Sierra Leone Journalist Assistance Fund is still welcoming contributions. To make a contribution to the Fund, please contact the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists at the coordinates listed below.
