AND YES, THERE'S A LIMIT OTHERWISE WE FACE GRAVE DANGERS - REAL AND PRESENT.....

As we observe World Press Freedom Day today May 3, 2007 let us for a short while turn our attention to those claiming the title "journalist".

Indeed as we find in other areas, there are bound to be individuals who yearn to belong to a profession and in our case, true journalists.

There are those who will go through the training to get a firm foundation and hence a true grasp of what it means to be called a journalist. They will endure the rigours of what it means to deal with issues using fair, accurate and balanced reporting and the truth as their shield.

There are others taking on the tag of editor, managing editor, proprietor or whatever ticks their fancy to claim that they belong to the Fourth Estate and as with other areas of human endeavour, you are bound to find a number of them not only churning out what could best be described as things dragged from the cesspits and sewers of infamy and deceit, but dressed to look like objects of honour!!!

And as we have stated repeatedly, being able to write an essay or putting together words and letters does not make one a journalist. There's more to it. Otherwise if you have written something, say for your university assignment, then you would be calling yourself one!!!!

You need proper training and once you go through it all, will realise just how much you could have been deluding yourself and then shall you know that in some cases the truth as defence can come crashing down on the not-so-careful!!!

Newspapers in the developed world have the capacity to bring down governments, state actors and people in the limelight who do wrong and they succeed in doing this because what they write they believe in, knowing that their sources are impeccable and can stand up to scrutiny in a court of law and that what they write about is in the interest of the public.

As any trained journalist will tell you, the laws relating to untruths and deliberate falsehood are something that must be taken seriously, very seriously as they can cause serious harm to the practising journalist....... and hence a wise word of caution that sections in journalism relating to LIBEL and SLANDER be studied, understood and practised and where in doubt, if you cannot get some pieces of advice from a senior colleague or a qualified legal mind, just leave out.

This is the reason why, if you are to study the art and science of journalism you will discover that you will be required to study these laws as it operates in the country where you may be studying even though you may want to practice it in your own country. There's a reason for that.

USING THE INTERNET

In the recent past we have seen the ether filled with materials from people claiming to be qualified journalists who have the mother country in focus and would want the world to believe that they had been in the business of telling things as they are for decades!!!!.

All well and good but as we all know, the freedom to publish materials on the internet is not absolute. With it, is a duty to be fair, accurate and avoid articles, no matter how tempting that will see you in court.

Oh yes, be reminded that just as you can be hauled before the courts for selling some of those sheets of paper that passes for a newspaper in Sierra Leone, so too can you be held responsible for deliberate untruths published on the internet.

It is refreshing to note that all those outlets that pandered to the whims and caprices of our former tormentors the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil and murder through their supporters, some claiming to be journalists who defend press freedom are no more. Or do we still have them?

It is also refreshing to see that the mammy queen of the rebel supporters has brought down those many internet talking point or discussion forums and other sites that she used to sell her master's ideology, painting them as angels while Sierra Leoneans were subjected to arson, rape and murder!!!!

Or is she praying and waiting for another wahala to hit the mother country so she can fly off seeking support for our tormentors.

As we observe World Press Freedom Day we remind ourselves of the likes of Sylvia Blyden, Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Gibril Gbanabom Koroma and what they did to journalists during junta days between May 25, 1997 to February 1998 when their benefactors were kicked out of power and they were forced to pack their bundles and leave with ill-gotten gains.

Or this time round if it should happen is Sylvia Blyden to be seen strutting the corridors of the then SLET condemning those who reported on the atrocities committed by her masters and urging those she could manipulate to write "good things" about the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil as she was telling the AFP reporter in the telex room in 1997?

So what happened to the SLBS website that she set up during junta rule?

Or should I ask the team that set up and operated the NINJA website claiming to be independent Sierra Leonean journalists as they propagated their master's message?

Oooops - seem to have touched on a rather troublesome topic as we understand that she was among those "honoured" by the one and only "wise one", Alhaji Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah - Fountain of Honour, Justice and Fairplay, Keeper of the Truth and Faith, All-Knowing and Best President of the Republic and Most Excellent Order of Appreciators of those who died that he might live, Supreme Commander of the Grateful who rewards propagators of the evil ones who raped, maimed, dispossessed and murdered Sierra Leoneans that he should come back home and claim his prize.

What a tragedy!!!!!!!