(3) The Police FM Station may likely not allow fair criticisms and critical observations of the public, more so, on issues of salient matters of public interest including politics, social freedom, free speech etc.
(4) Across the world, the Police, Army, Immigration and others are usually interviewed and checkmated by mainstream journalists to give account of their stewardship and fair policing, and they should not conduct interviews outside their policing remits including investigations…On the contrary, in the deliberate attempt to establish a Police FM Station, the police will certainly have to instill fears and panic in their interviewees and guests, thereby micromanage or economise facts, differ from the normal dissemination of credible information.
(5) The Police FM Station will have to create constant fear in the minds of practicing journalists and some fearless, but cautious members of the public…
(6) The Police FM will have to instill fear in the minds of advertisers such as private businessmen and business entities and institutions, particularly advertisements that would be meant for Radio Stations.
(7) The Police FM Station will have to render the mainstream media useless or less important because, police authorities at Police Divisions across the country might largely tend to depend or rely on the information disseminated by its medium-whether bias or not, than that of the mainstream media, and may also lead to confusion between members of the public and diplomats and the international community.
(8) With the existence of the Police FM Station, the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) and the Independent Media Commission (IMC) which are the regulatory bodies may not get total control over the police, perhaps for ego, insubordination and the like.
(9) The existence of the Police FM will have to undermine, starve or deprive practicing journalists from accessing first-hand information from police authorities in time.
(10) There is a wicked and cheap play of politics in Sierra Leone, as we all know… In connection with that, will the Police FM Station have to allow credible print and electronic media publications/broadcasts on issues involving police misconduct such as intimidation, brutality and harassment on opposition party members and supporters and peaceful protestants and demonstrators etc., without their interference and baseless counters that can lead to the undermining of credible dissemination of information?
(11) If the SLP is relating the establishment of the Police FM Station as a factor to minimize or weed corruption from its membership, how fair and non bias will its Moderators and Presenters have to allow the public to reliably make phone calls or send text messages without intimidation and harassment, for instance, to complain/report corrupt junior or senior police officers in their duty dispensation?
(12) On one hand, the compulsory establishment of the Police FM Station will certainly have a boomerang effect in the near future, should the police tend to stay independent against government directives…and on the other hand, the masses, including opposition party members and diehard supporters and resilient rights activists, will obviously have to suffer the multidimensional brunt, if the police decide to succumb thereto.
These and more are obvious and genuine reasons why the establishment of the Police FM Radio Station should not be granted license by NATCOM nor allowed to operate in a politically uncivilised nation like Sierra Leone, if general sanity should continue to prevail for the maintenance of our hard-earned peace and the country’s reputation to the international world.
I pause!!!
