Increased spate of attacks and threats against Journalists

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists wishes to condemn in the strongest of terms attacks and threats against three journalists this week alone.
We are in receipt of a letter written by the Youth Leader of the All People’s Congress party in Kambia District, Mr Sorieba Yillah in which he threatens a journalist, Gibril Gottor, who works at Radio Kollenten in Kambia, calling for his “unconditional expulsion” from the radio.
In the letter, Mr Yillah writes that the journalist must never show up again at the radio apparently because of a story he reported. “Any attempt made by the rascal [Gibril Gottor,]” to do so, he “will be surely molested and manhandled…Warning before wounded” he writes.
The APC Youth Leader also went on radio and threatened to beat up the journalist if he continued working at the station. An audio copy of those remarks is being brought to Freetown. He has also been allegedly making threatening calls to the journalist who says he is now afraid for his life and needs protection.
When SLAJ contacted Mr Yillah on the phone on the matter, he sounded boastful and without contrition. We consider this a threat to the safety and security of the journalist who was merely doing his job. The association has written a formal letter of complaint to the APC party urging it to institute disciplinary action against their official.
SLAJ also wishes to unequivocally condemn a reported attack on Monday 19 January 2009, against Mr Alex James of Citizen Radio at Kissy, in Freetown, details of which we are awaiting.
 Meanwhile we have also received a complaint from Mr Mamaja Jalloh alias DJ Base of the United Nations Radio in Freetown that armed men raided his home on Sunday night and looted it. It followed threatening text messages from anonymous people, who took issue with a comment he made on his radio show.
All of this comes just two weeks after a journalist was beaten up in Pujehun by a supporter of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party and another attack on Radio Wanjei, also in Pujehun, allegedly by APC supporters.
“We wish to let it be known to all that the rule of law still does exist in Sierra Leone and that there are still civilised ways of addressing grievances against journalists”, says Umaru Fofana, President of SLAJ. He calls on the country’s political parties to condemn attacks on journalists and for Government to guarantee the safety and protection of media practitioners by speedily looking into the above-mentioned cases.