By Amadu Lamarana Bah, Abuja, Nigeria

President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, believes journalism is facing a crisis in West Africa and urges media development bodies and journalists’ unions in the region to collaborate with relevant institutions/organisations, not excluding governments, to guarantee press freedom, ensure and assure the safety and security of journalists at all times, and strengthen the civic space to ensure democracy, rule of law, freedom and human rights thrive.

“After two days of interactive and insightful deliberations here, I am left even more confused as to who we really are, what actually is our mission, and what the future holds for journalism in West Africa. I totally agree with sentiments expressed here that our journalism is in crisis,” said Nasralla at the just-concluded inaugural West Africa Journalism Innovation Conference 2023 (#WAJIC 2023) in Abuja, Nigeria from 24th to 27th July 2023.

Participating in two panel discussions on ‘Regulations and Spaces for Press Freedom Advocacy’ and ‘Media in West African Elections: Observation, Reporting and Polling’, Nasralla said with the emergence of digital and social media the traditional media has lost three critical functions which are rendering it irrelevant in performing its fundamental role of informing, educating, and entertaining in a factual, credible, and responsible manner.

“The threat that comes with digital and social media is the fact that we are fast losing our authority as traditional media. We have lost the privilege of content creation and dissemination; we have lost the important role of gate-keeping; and the critical role of setting the agenda for healthy public debate around national issues,” Nasralla added.

He said citizen journalism is gaining prominence, with ordinary citizens actively reporting and sharing news which often, if not always, comes with concerns about the reliability and credibility of information.

Apart from the usual threats, intimidation, and assaults perpetrated by security personnel, Nasralla said there is an emerging threat from political supporters and traditional authorities/leaders in local communities.

“When you put out information that is critical of either the ruling party (government) or the opposition party, their supporters will come at you from all angles with various threats, labeling you to ultimately discredit you and your work in the eyes of the wider public,” he said.

“Another emerging threat is a partisan press with journalists becoming increasingly political by siding with the politicians instead of with the people”, Nasralla continued.

“Self-interest journalism is undermining accountability and public interest journalism and this is a worrying trend in most of West Africa. This is also affecting media solidarity on important national issues and creating enemies from within the journalism fraternity.

He said it is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists’ Associations like SLAJ, NUJ, GJA, and PUL to effectively act as moral guarantors, be the voice of the voiceless, and hold governments to account because the memberships have been passionately polarised along political lines, and solidarity is a challenge.

“With the help of a section of the membership, the government wants to have you on their side, and the opposition party/ies want you to stand by them. So the Associations find themselves in a Catch-22 situation sort of, where it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to take a certain line of action or position,” he said.

The SLAJ President gave an example from his own country which just conducted national elections: “One set of members is calling upon us to condemn the results of the just concluded elections alleging that it was rigged and that democracy has been stolen. How do we condemn elections that we did not monitor? On what basis should we condemn? On the basis that you didn’t agree with the outcome?

“Another set of members is calling upon us to go and congratulate the president on his re-election. We say unto them that it is not part of our tradition to congratulate the president for winning an election, especially an election whose results the main opposition has refused to accept. These are the kinds of pressures we face when our membership have vested interests in the politics of the State.

“Others are demanding that we use our i-verify platform to verify the results announced by the Elections Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL). How do we do that? Which independent results do we crosscheck with other than the projections of the National Elections Watch (NEW) which have also been questioned by sections of the population?” explained Nasralla.

There is also the emerging trend and threat of State and corporate capture of the media. Nasralla said: “On the one hand, governments try to silence critical journalists as well as civil society activists by appointing them to political office and rendering the media and civic space less vocal and active. The same with corporate houses who provide support to the media and consequently escape scrutiny of their operations.”

Another concern is new regulations/legislations with the motive to narrow the media and civic space. He said countries in West Africa have constitutions that guarantee free press but, being wary of the excesses of digital and social media, are now passing laws curtailing those fundamental freedoms guaranteed in their national constitutions. He made reference to the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone which provides for the obligation of the media to hold the government to account in Section 11; freedom of the media in Section 25(i); limitations of the media in 25(ii); and Contempt of Court in Section 95. He further mentioned the IMC Act 2022; the Public Order Amendment Act 2020 which repealed the Criminal and Seditious Libel Law, and the Civil Defamation Act 1961. One year after the historic repeal of the criminal libel law, he said, the government passed the Cyber Security and Crime Act, 2021 which has been used in some instances to curtail free speech.

In Nigeria, he noted, the country’s 1999 Constitution guarantees a free press in Section 22 but the Terrorism Act of 2011 and Cybercrime Act 2015 are now being used by State authorities to suppress freedom of expression and of the press.

In Ghana, like Sierra Leone, there is no more criminal libel and seditious laws but the authorities are using the Criminal Code and the 2008 Electronic Communications Act to suppress free press.

“Despite these guarantees, countries in West Africa, for example, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, have begun passing cyber security laws to take back these freedoms. So the strategy is, with one hand the governments liberalise the media and civic space and with the other hand restrict the space with anti-free press and expression laws,” Nasralla lamented.

The SLAJ President said the political context is also a serious emerging trend and threat with democracy backsliding and the civic space shrinking, citing the re-emergence of coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and now Niger. He said governments are becoming all too powerful again and yet paranoid by employing methods of surveillance of critical journalists and civil society activists. This has implications for press freedom and affects the ability of the media to practice and produce the right quality of journalism.

“When I became President of SLAJ the first advice I got was to ensure that I be careful what I say over the phone… I was advised to use WhatsApp calls as much as possible for my privileged conversations for security reasons. That was worrying,” explained Nasralla.

The securitisation of information is also a concern when we consider striking a balance between national security and freedom of the press, said Nasralla, and questioned the determination of what amounts to a national security issue.

“Freedom of the press is not absolute and national security is very important in the grand scheme of things but the State should not stifle press freedom in the guise of national security. Freedom of the press should not be considered in isolation from the broader picture of freedom of expression for every citizen. Freedom of the press is a product of the fundamental human right of freedom of expression. A threat to the right to free expression is a threat to a free press. Journalism bodies must fight for the protection and promotion of the right of every citizen to enjoy free speech irrespective of status, gender, political affiliation, tribe, and other considerations.”

The SLAJ President also mentioned the economy, or rather poverty, of the media as another emerging threat to press freedom in West Africa. He said the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the global decline in trust for traditional media, and the spread of disinformation, misinformation, mal-information, fake news and hate speech, have all compounded the viability and sustainability of the media in West Africa and the wider world.

“The poverty of the media in most of West Africa is rendering them vulnerable to the bankroll of politicians and big businesses, thus undermining independence, professionalism and credibility of the media,” said Nasralla, noting that the beneficial owners of most of West Africa’s media are not necessarily media practitioners but politicians and corporate actors with a vested interest in the governance of the State,” Nasralla noted.

According to Nasralla, the rise of influencers is also a concern for mainstream media, adding that in the recent elections in Nigeria and Sierra Leone politicians employed the services of influencers to peddle propaganda, disinformation and discredit not only their rivals but also critical journalists and civil society activists.

Commenting on the theme of the conference, ‘Accountability Journalism: Nurturing Innovation for a Sustainable Future’, the SLAJ President opined: “Public interest journalism, which encompasses investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, and analyses in specialised areas like health, education, energy, technology and climate change, and holding government, public officials and big businesses accountable is dying as the media continues to gravitate towards political partisanship. He said there is an urgent need to address this negative trend and clear threat.

“Accountability journalism is the essence and purpose of journalism: to serve as watch-dog, hold leaders to account, and set the agenda for governance and citizens’ participation but the media is becoming weaker and weaker and compromised to be able to perform this critical national duty.”

He talked about the two sides to accountability journalism: “Accountability Journalism requires the media to point the search-light on society, government and private sector, to expose corruption and societal ills but the other side of the coin demands the media to equally turn the search-light on itself and do honest introspection. The media has to be first accountable and transparent in its operations in order to have the moral ground to hold other sectors to account. How do you explain the action by a media house that does not pay its workers and flouting statutory obligations holding a mining company guilty of same to account?”

Meanwhile, whilst proffering solutions to the challenges facing the media in West Africa, President Nasralla said there is a lot the region can learn from his small country Sierra Leone.

“The challenges are cross-cutting but in Sierra Leone, we have made some encouraging progress in the area of regulations, safety, and security of journalists, public interest media, inclusivity, media development, collaboration, working together as media stakeholders, and building partnerships, coalitions and networks,” he said.

He said when we talk about innovation, people often limit it to adopting and adapting technology and digital tools into the business of journalism but it is not just about that.

“Innovation also means not continuing with business as usual but trying new approaches to address challenges and bring about positive and impactful change that is felt across the board. But the real challenge is people are scared of change because they erroneously believe it will put them out of the circle and so they insist on maintaining the status quo because that is what they have been used to and they are content with being in the same place for eternity as long as they are comfortable,” said Nasralla.

He stated that SLAJ fought for the repeal of the criminal libel and seditious law for 50 years using the same approach but it is only when they changed the approach that they succeeded in repealing the anti-press law.

He went on to say that for 50 years, police-media relations was strained and the State security enjoyed beating, assaulting, arresting and detaining journalists arbitrarily and with impunity. It is only when the approach changed from the issuing of scathing press releases to dialogue that a new relationship of mutual respect and support is now forged.

“There is even a lot to learn from the way our journalists’ association is structured and administered with a strong democratic, accountability and transparent culture,” Nasralla said.

The SLAJ President called for the resuscitation of regional groupings like the West Africa Journalists Association (WAJA) that will organize and produce periodic regional conferences and publications highlighting press freedom successes, emerging trends, threats, challenges, and opportunities.

Meanwhile, Nasralla stated that there is a lot of burden West African countries are putting on the media and described it as unfair.

“With governments becoming stronger and powerful and the opposition parties becoming disorganised and weaker, society puts a lot of expectation on the media (and journalists unions) as if journalists should have all the solutions or answers to the problems of the State. I think this is unfair, the media is a reflection or mirror of the society and journalists are not angels; they come from the same homes and communities with the politicians. If we all come from a mango tree then we are all mangoes, you cannot expect some of us to be sweet and gorgeous apples. That is why moving a nation forward requires the collective resolve of the government and the govern,” said Nasralla.