AWE Media Sierra Leone

The Calabash Newspaper✍️ The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), in a release it issued out on the 29th April 2020 and signed by the Association’s National Secretary General, Mohamed Asmieu Bah, has intimated its launching of a Disciplinary Committee Pursuant to Article 14 (3) of the SLAJ constitution which states:  “There shall also be a Disciplinary Committee of SLAJ whose function shall be to adjudicate upon matters of indiscipline and professional misconduct of individual members of SLAJ.”  The Disciplinary Committee of SLAJ comprises three members. Two of such members were drawn from within or without SLAJ.” “The SLAJ Disciplinary Committee should co-opt two additional members, comprising one from civil society and another from the floor to enhance its operations.”  The newly constituted Disciplinary Committee (SLAJ-DC) is as follows:  SLAJ:  1. Mrs. Bernadette Cole- (Chairperson)  2. Abu-Bakarr Sheriff Esq- (Secretary)  3. Lucy Ann Ganda  PUBLIC:  4. Marcella Samba Se...

By: Ibrahim Jalloh - (Jallomy)✍️ The photos above depict the desperate and callous attitude of Sierra Leoneans on the permanent ruin of the environment. I was shocked and shattered to see the above grotesque scenery: a typical agrarian village in rural Sierra Leone where the desperation to burn charcoal cannot restrain the locals from chopping permanent tree crops to burn charcoal. the fallen tree is a mango tree that suffered brutal human rape for a precarious and unsustainable livelihood. What can anyone do to protect and preserve the wailing forests of Sierra Leone? Government has established institutions to do just that but such institutions, like the Environment Protection Agency, have relapsed to decorative status: a permanent feature of state decoration. Logging and chaircoal burning are massive and done in the most savage of fashions. Rural Sierra Leoneans are chronically and desperately poor. Beyond physical poverty, they are also mentally and visionarily poor! Sadly, mental ...

By: Foday Sulaiman Dumbuya -Kambia District Son of the Soil✍️ MY TAKE ON THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 IN KAMBIA DISTRICT Kambia district is strategically located and shares over 163 crossing points-both official and unofficial ones with the Republic of Guinea. Since the outbreak of Coronavirus in China and it rapid spread to big economies across the globe, the Sierra Leone government wasted no time but engaged all relevant authorities to prevent COVID-19 entering the country with special attention given to  border districts with Kambia as main district of concentration. This was due mainly to the flow of positive coronavirus cases from Guinea at the time and the initial response to it.  Also, the manner with which  Ebola was handled in that country came to mind. It was not therefore surprising to see steady flow of visit to Kambia by key government officias with the motive to ginger stakeholders to put measures in place earlier than later for the battle ahead. It is against this back dro...

Freetown | 4th May | 2020   Greetings from the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ). Yesterday, 3rd May, 2020, SLAJ joined the rest of the world in observing World Press Freedom Day on the global theme of: ‘Journalism without fear or favour’. Because the day fell on Sunday, we decided to defer our programmes for today. Later in the day, SLAJ will hold a virtual seminar on the theme: “The Media and the COVID-19 Pandemic”. The next day, 5th May, SLAJ will also participate in a regional webinar discussion with counterparts in Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria organised by UNESCO on the global theme. Strangely, the world is observing this year’s World Press Freedom Day amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and for us here we are doing so under the State of Emergency and a lockdown. Nevertheless, the media in Sierra Leone continues to play its crucial role in supporting the national fight against COVID-19 and re-positioning itself as a force to be reckoned with in our governance landscape. The m...

Following allegations that the Publisher of Awareness Times newspaper,  Dr. Sylvia Blyden, was arrested because of her critical and controversial publications and postings on social media, we visited the CID yesterday,  Saturday, 2nd May,  2020 at around 5pm to find out what actually were the charges against her. The investigator dealing with Dr. Sylvia Blyden's case, EK Allieu, could not tell us the charges against her as they were "still investigating". He also said they have taken Dr. Blyden's mobile phone and personal computers and submitted to the Cyber Unit as they were also investigating her for Cyber crime.  He said they have not granted Dr. Blyden bail because "her case is very serious" and that they were still investigating.  However, my self and my Secretary General were allowed to see Dr. Blyden in her cell for about 10 minutes.  Dr. Blyden told us she was "captured" and "kidnapped" from her residence and was never told she wa...

By: Amadu Wurie Jalloh What if I told you that Ghana and Nigeria are winning in the ongoing battle of rap supremacy between our own Hip-hop heavyweight and the rest of the OGs across Africa? Would you not be quick to jump into conclusion accusing me of betrayal unto a country fellow-- Kaodenero? Yes, you would.  Especially so when I am the same guy who was taunting him and his fans yesterday and unto today afternoon when I finally decided to forgive and forget his folly. We are starting fasting tomorrow, and we should forgive ans forget. I however want to tell you that this post is not about Kaodenero, or any of those rappers he's lyrically fighting with. Rather, this post is about our youths in general, but especially Sierra Leonean youths.  A few days ago I wrote a piece asking that people cheer up Kaodenero's project for both its market viability and the chance to promote the African culture and awake its people to a renaissance movement. Well, today again I want us to give ...

How A Former Colonial Power And Its Ex-Colony Are Faring In COVID-19 Fight? By: Sheka Tarawalie (Shekito)  Apart from its extraordinarily high fatality toll and fast-paced infection rate worldwide, the coronavirus disease’s ability to strike at the very heart of government anywhere is conspicuously unprecedented.  UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still convalescing at Chequers after a scary it-could-have-gone-either-way experience at the intensive care unit of London’s St. Thomas’ hospital. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie battled with COVID-19, forcing her husband to go into isolation.  Britain’s Deputy Ambassador to Hungary, Steven Dick, died from the disease at post. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to go into self-isolation after her doctor tested positive. Flamboyant US Republican Senator Rand Paul caught – or was caught by – the virulent disease. Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton tested positive.  In the Middle East, Iran’s Vice President Esh...