(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: CPJ RELEASES SPECIAL REPORT ON SIERRA LEONE New York, August 15, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today released a special report about the challenges facing journalists in Sierra Leone since the signing of a peace agreement between government and rebel forces in July 1999-an agreement […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:
CPJ RELEASES SPECIAL REPORT ON SIERRA LEONE
New York, August 15, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today released a special report about the challenges facing journalists in Sierra Leone since the signing of a peace agreement between government and rebel forces in July 1999-an agreement that was cemented in May by the country’s first general election since civil conflict broke out more than a decade ago. The report, titled “Identity Crisis,” is now available on CPJ’s Web site at www.cpj.org
CPJ Africa program coordinator Yves Sorokobi, who spent two weeks in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, in May, wrote the report. While there, he spoke with local journalists about the state of government-media relations and how the press was covering the intense political campaigning that preceded the May 14 vote.
As Sorokobi points out in the report, the desire to thwart unwanted interference with the flow of information has led a surprising number of reporters in Sierra Leone to seek political office. Journalists, who were targeted by all parties during the decade-long war, have also begun to engage in impassioned soul-searching about corruption in the media and other unethical practices that have undermined the press’s credibility.
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press conditions in Sierra Leone, visit www.cpj.org.