Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Sierra leone: Seray Timbo: A Victim of Hate Journalism

A running motif with examining other media issues in other countries will be the constant comparison to the system we have here in America. Journalism is being used as a power to start hateful feelings towards an honest man who has done nothing to deserve these actions. In our society such a man would be honored for his business achievements, and not thrown into some scandal. That is not to say that American journalism does not have it's own scandals to deal with, but the practice of honest and fair journalism is one of the issues that is taught in our journalism schools. Sierra Leone seems to allow their journalists to say what they want. Newspaper being the powerful medium that it is, can very easily sway it's readers to think or believe what is written.

Sierra Leone: Seray Timbo: a Victim of Hate Journalism


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Abdul Karim Koroma
Freetown

One of Sierra Leone's acclaimed businessmen, managing director of IDEAS and chairman national telecommunications commission or NATCOM Seray Timbo is a victim of hate journalism.

Hate journalism perpetrated on him by the managing editor of Independent Observer newspaper Jonathan Arthur Derrick Leigh because he has proven to be a honest man.

However, hate journalism is not a new phenomenon in some sections of the country's media landscape.

The genocide in Rwanda was largely fuelled by hate messages manufactured and broadcast by radio stations. Those messages caused a lot of havoc in that country, killing some tens of thousands of people, some painfully hacked to death. With all those calamities some of our journalists have refused to learn, in this case, from the mistakes of others.

But in Sierra Leone what could be described as hate journalism is what is being practiced by some of our so-called colleagues in the disguise of fighting proxy wars for faceless people with questionable past records.

This brings to fore the issue of Jonathan Leigh after he launched a hate campaign on Seray Timbo. Why am I of the opinion that Jonathan Leigh's story captioned: 'NRA awards Mr. Seray Timbo over Le 328 million duty free concessions...on personal effects alone' was published out of heartedness? It is because he did not make any attempt to try and crosscheck with the managing director of IDEAS. Instead after writing all sorts of falsehood about Seray Timbo he wrote at the tail end of the story: 'more details tomorrow.' This was an apparent attempt at blackmailing. The idea was to force the businessman into calling for settlement.

I will not even bother myself to go into his story because Sierra Leone is the only country in the world where such type of journalism is allowed to be practiced with reckless impunity, all in the name of freedom of the press. Press freedom my foot!

It could be recalled that Jonathan Leigh is notorious for libeling decent people in society. He published a series of retractions after publishing a generation of falsehoods against erstwhile minister of transport and aviation Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay. People whose reputation Jonathan Leigh has destroyed are many and the line is long. He had to beg the former minister through the Sierra Leone association of journalists, SLAJ opting for an out of court settlement.

What is now coming out very clearly is that Jonathan Leigh is anti youth. He is always not at ease when a youthful someone excels in life, as if there are people responsible for his backwardness.

The duty free concession, which the managing editor of Independent Observer newspaper reported about was never granted to Seray Timbo but his company, IDEAS in its capacity as consultant architect for the refurbishment of the presidential lodge on Hill Station. The magnificent edifice is now occupied by President Ernest Bai Koroma. In fact items imported included building materials household items, electrical appliances, furniture and computers.

What is now clear was that Seray Timbo did not clear anything like personal effects on duty free waiver. The aim of the said publication was to drag the hard earned reputation of one Sierra Leone's highly accredited architects to the mud.

Seray Timbo is among the few honest Sierra Leoneans running one of the most credible architectural firms in the country with unblemished records.

A senior national revenue authority official told Concord Times that they have never contravened any law by granting duty free concession to IDEAS for items which were to be used by the state.

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Seray Timbo's job as chairman national telecommunications commission, NATCOM has nothing to do with his work as managing director of IDEAS.

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