H. E. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
President
Freetown
Sierra Leone

Vienna, 15 May 1997

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 98 countries, is most concerned about proposed amendments to the press law in Sierra Leone.

On 6 May 1997, Parliament passed the Newspaper Act 1997, the first part of the amendments to the press law. The second part, called the Media Practitioners’ Act 1997, is currently before Parliament. IPI understands that these bills would have to be ratified before Your Excellency and that you are awaiting the outcome of the Media Practitioners’ Act before signing the two bills into law.

Among the proposed changes to the press law are requirements that all editors have ten years’ experience in journalism, five of them in the editorial capacity. All journalists will be required to have a degree in their field and also be certified by the police. Furthermore, all newspapers which began circulation after February 1996 will be required to re-register.

IPI believes that the proposed changes would be open to abuse by government authorities and would effectively shut down most of the independent newspapers in Sierra Leone.

We maintain that there should be no restrictions on the free entry into the field of journalism or over its practice, through licensing or other certification procedures. Everyone should have the right “to seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as proclaimed in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

IPI therefore urges Your Excellency not to sign into law the Newspaper Act 1997 and the Media Practitioners’ Act 1997. We further urge you to ensure that independent news media are allowed to emerge and operate freely in Sierra Leone.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director