(MFWA/IFEX) – Sahr Musa Yamba, editor of “Concord Times”, an independent newspaper based in Freetown, Sierra Leone who was arrested by plain clothes policemen on 20 March 2006, on the instructions of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Frederick Carew, no longer has a case to answer to after all. On the day following […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – Sahr Musa Yamba, editor of “Concord Times”, an independent newspaper based in Freetown, Sierra Leone who was arrested by plain clothes policemen on 20 March 2006, on the instructions of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Frederick Carew, no longer has a case to answer to after all. On the day following his arrest, Yamba had been asked to report to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)-Sierra Leone’s sources, Omrie Golley, a Sierra Leonean charged with treason, had told journalists during a an adjournment session in his court case that statements made by the Attorney General about him were false. After receiving this information, the “Concord Times”, “Exclusive”, “The Spectator” and “Awareness Times” newspapers published the story.
The Attorney General, who did not take kindly to the publications, insisted that Golley had created an impression that he was a liar. He then called Yamba, editor of one of the newspapers that published the story, in for questioning.
On 21 March, however, in a meeting with Ben Kargbo, President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, and the Attorney General, Justice Carew discharged Yamba and the editors of “Concord Times”, “Exclusive”, “The Spectator” and “Awareness Times”. The Justice then warned Kargbo, “Mr. President, tell your people, tell the journalists to report the truth and I want them to understand that I am not an enemy of the press, all I asked for was fair treatment.”
