The Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone Qiu Shaofang on Tuesday 8th September 2009 paid a courtesy visit to Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) at New England Ville, Freetown to acquaint himself with the problems affecting the institution.
In a conducted tour around the building, the Acting Director General Dr. Ajibola-Thomas took the Ambassador to the different studios, Newsroom, Commercial department explaining that the entire service lacks equipment to perform at the highest level.
The Ag. Director-General said that when he took over few months ago he had to do some immediate repairs to his office, toilet and studio to bring them up to standard.
He said one of the studios is empty as they do not have any equipment to put into it. He showed the Ambassador the only teleprompter they have is not working anymore and they do not have enough professional cameras to work with.
‘Since the inception of SLBS we have been using analog system and it is now outdated but we can’t afford the computerized equipment to make our job more effective with good quality’, Dr Thomas said.
He told the Ambassador that the staffs are working very hard and they rely on their experience to bring out programmes that are good and encouraging. Dr.Thomas further stated that the new building has 10 studios and they will want to see it repaired because it is more suited for the television.
He also informed the Ambassador of the change of status from Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service to Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation that would see the service become more independent than now.
‘Our job is to inform, educate and entertain the public especially when we have 75 percent of illiterates in the country, so we have to work assiduously to get the information to the people and also from the people to the government’, he said.
He appealed to the Ambassador to see how they can help the institution to develop into a viable one.
In his remarks, Ambassador Qiu Shaofang said he was very happy to be at SLBS and will definitely help in their own way.
He admonished the management and staff for all what they’ve been doing over the years and said the friendship that has existed between the two countries will continue.
The Chinese envoy also said they will continue to give scholarships to the workers to help them gain more experience in the job and they are ready to donate some films about China to them so that both countries can exchange their cultures.
He advised the staff to continue to work with passion even though they are working under strenuous conditions as they will be successful at the end. He however promised that they will try their best to help SLB S in the future.
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