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CPJ ASSESSES STATE OF THE MEDIA

For a country only recently emerging from years of brutal civil war, Sierra Leone's media have come a long way? and still have a long way to go, according to a special report released last week by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The organisation visited the country in May 2002 to assess the state of relations between government and the media, and how the press covered the recent elections.

During the May general elections, media coverage was widely held to be fair, the report finds. Political parties had equal access to public media and all 10 presidential candidates were granted equal access to the airwaves "for the first time in the history of this country."

Since 1997, the number of newspapers has mushroomed from 12 to 50, and a surprising number of journalists are entering politics, "highlighting the Sierra Leonian media's search for a new purpose," the report says. During the elections, 12 former journalists ran for parliament. One of these journalists told CPJ that "having journalists in Parliament would be a better service to the struggle for freedom of expression than a thousand editorials deploring the lack of it."

However, others warned that this compromises the credibility of the local media, which has been criticised by many for being partisan and prone to corruption. Many newspapers are funded by political groups and journalists often take bribes, the CPJ report notes. In addition, despite the tremendous growth in newspapers, many new publications are run by people with "uncertain journalistic credentials."

See CPJ's full report:
www.cpj.org.