(MFWA/IFEX) – On 31 October 2005, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) asked the government to implement without further delay the recommendations of the committee that investigated the death of Harry Yansaneh, acting editor of the independent daily “For Di People”, by bringing suspects named in the report to trial. SLAJ President Alhaji I. […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 31 October 2005, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) asked the government to implement without further delay the recommendations of the committee that investigated the death of Harry Yansaneh, acting editor of the independent daily “For Di People”, by bringing suspects named in the report to trial.
SLAJ President Alhaji I. B. Kargbo, who was briefing members about latest developments in the Yansaneh inquest, said that SLAJ had given the government ample time and had no desire to create unnecessary difficulties since the government itself had instituted the inquest. However, it was becoming apparent that the Law Offices Department, which is under the authority of the office of the Attorney General and the minister of justice, had no intention of charging the Honourable Fatmata Hassan, a Member of Parliament for the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP), and five other suspects implicated in the report.
Alhaji Kargbo said if the government did not respect the verdict, then SLAJ would be compelled to review its relationship with it.
Meanwhile SLAJ has constituted a four-member committee to communicate to the government and all diplomatic missions through a press release that SLAJ and the Reporters’ Union will soon stop cooperating with the government and boycott all of its activities, including a proposed workshop on the 1965 Public Order Act.
