(MFWA/IFEX) – On 27 July 2004, Justice Edmond Cowan, speaker of the Sierra Leonean Parliament, banned the privately-owned “Standard Times” newspaper from covering parliamentary sessions for one month. The speaker’s action came after the publication in early July of an article in the newspaper, under the caption, “MP Thrown Out of Parliament”, which the legislative […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 27 July 2004, Justice Edmond Cowan, speaker of the Sierra Leonean Parliament, banned the privately-owned “Standard Times” newspaper from covering parliamentary sessions for one month.
The speaker’s action came after the publication in early July of an article in the newspaper, under the caption, “MP Thrown Out of Parliament”, which the legislative body considered disparaging.
According to MFWA sources in Sierra Leone, before the imposition of the ban, editor Mike Beecher and reporter Abdul Kuyateh, the author of the story, were summoned by the Parliament’s plenary to clarify the information.
Kuyateh confessed to the speaker that he was not present at the parliamentary session in which the event described in the article allegedly occurred. He, however, refused to disclose his source when Cowan asked him to do so.
Cowan then ordered the Parliament’s sergeant-at-arms to detain Kuyateh for one hour and instructed the newspaper to retract the story, giving it front page coverage, and issue an apology.
Cowan also ordered Beecher to write a personal apology to the member of parliament concerned. Failing to do so will be considered tantamount to contempt of Parliament, which is punishable by law.
