This week press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication started off in a very uncompromising mood as the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication lambasted the Inspector General of Police Brima Acha Kamara for not honouring their invitation to the weekly briefing.
“I have discovered that the I. G. Acha Kamara is fond of absenting himself from this briefing as if journalists are idle or not important to talk to, but we the journalists are as important as any Lawyer, Doctor, Politician or Public Officer” he stated.
He opined that, each time Mr. Acha Kamara is invited to the weekly press briefing he would either send his media personnel Ibrahim Samura or someone below the rank, adding that the forum is the highest forum for accountability and transparency where every public officer is mandated by the constitution to talk to the press.“except you want to dodge but you have the constitutional mandate to talk to journalists Mr. I G and this message goes for everyone including members of the SLA, SLP and anyone in public office” he pointed out.
He observed that most people who are engaged in corruption perceive journalists as enemies because they do not want to be transparent.
“I am very bitter about this attitude of the IG and other members of the public who bad eye journalists for performing their duties” he stated.
From the look of things at that briefing, every journalist present in that briefing was highly supportive of the concern raised by the Deputy Information Minister because one way or the other most journalists if not all have fallen victim of the snobbish attitude of those in authority for reasons best known to them.
As if it was unanimously agreed among other executive officers who were invited to the press briefing the NRA boss Alieu Sesay, Trade Minister Alimamy Koroma and the Chief Immigration Officer were conspicuously absent for the briefing.
Earlier the Information Commissioner of NRA Oswald Hanciles made an apology on behalf of his boss Alieu Sesay but it almost fell on deaf ears as some militant journalists like uncompromisingly demanded his presence to respond to questions bordering on the recent protest action by importers which led to the closure of shops around town for a whole day.
By Solomon Rogers
“I have discovered that the I. G. Acha Kamara is fond of absenting himself from this briefing as if journalists are idle or not important to talk to, but we the journalists are as important as any Lawyer, Doctor, Politician or Public Officer” he stated.
He opined that, each time Mr. Acha Kamara is invited to the weekly press briefing he would either send his media personnel Ibrahim Samura or someone below the rank, adding that the forum is the highest forum for accountability and transparency where every public officer is mandated by the constitution to talk to the press.“except you want to dodge but you have the constitutional mandate to talk to journalists Mr. I G and this message goes for everyone including members of the SLA, SLP and anyone in public office” he pointed out.
He observed that most people who are engaged in corruption perceive journalists as enemies because they do not want to be transparent.
“I am very bitter about this attitude of the IG and other members of the public who bad eye journalists for performing their duties” he stated.
From the look of things at that briefing, every journalist present in that briefing was highly supportive of the concern raised by the Deputy Information Minister because one way or the other most journalists if not all have fallen victim of the snobbish attitude of those in authority for reasons best known to them.
As if it was unanimously agreed among other executive officers who were invited to the press briefing the NRA boss Alieu Sesay, Trade Minister Alimamy Koroma and the Chief Immigration Officer were conspicuously absent for the briefing.
Earlier the Information Commissioner of NRA Oswald Hanciles made an apology on behalf of his boss Alieu Sesay but it almost fell on deaf ears as some militant journalists like uncompromisingly demanded his presence to respond to questions bordering on the recent protest action by importers which led to the closure of shops around town for a whole day.
By Solomon Rogers