When journalists dance the corporate dance...???

I Hang My Case!!!

When journalists dance the corporate dance…???

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

(Journalist/Fixer/Campaigner)

Journalism, no doubt, is a noble and interesting profession practiced worldwide. Here in Sierra Leone, the nobility of the profession has come under the spotlight a couple of times.

Better still, the respectability of the profession has been dragged to the mud again and again, and with the advent of corporate entities in the country, the indications are clear that the worst is right on our doorsteps.

Sierra Leone, like most other countries around the world, has perpetually produced two sets of journalists. You either have the good one or the bad one. The good one would be the one who is prepared to sacrifice everything in defense of his/her profession and what he/she believes, while the bad one would be the one who can lie down for anything cheap without thinking that he/she has the reputation of a noble profession to protect.

With poverty smiling right in our faces, we have entered a stage wherein a successful journalist is determined by the number of assets he/she has, or how much he/she is able to make on a daily basis either through ‘coasting’ or some other unethical means.

Because the bad ones are always in the majority, it has come out clearly that corporate entities operating in the country enjoy the leverage of taking advantage of the situation.

In what I would refer to as the gradual taking over of the local media, Sierra Leone is currently witnessing a situation wherein advertisements from the corporate world are considered as gems. Some newspapers cannot even survive without such advertisements.

Take a look at most of the newspapers today, and you’ll see for yourself the outright take-over plan at play.

The consequences of this unfortunate trend abound, but suffice it to state that the divisive aspect of it is the most crucial.

It is no longer a secret that our resource-rich but shamefully poor and degrading country has attracted a wide range of unscrutinized so-called investors who are mostly active in the mining and extractive sector.

These multilateral companies always find pleasure in operating in resource cursed nations such as Sierra Leone, for the sole purpose of exploiting. Apart from the fact that such companies give premium to maximizing profit and limiting obligation, they are also known to be neck deep in sustaining the divide and rule tactic to get away with things.

This is exactly what Sierra Leone has experienced over the years, and by the look of things, the worst is in sight. What this means in essence is that hopes for the better are not only remote, but untenable.

The big game plan which many journalists are yet to see playing is the strategy employed by certain corporate entities to divide the media and the civil society body in the country.

Currently, the Association of Journalists on Mining and Extractives (AJME), which is on record as being one of the most outstanding media outfits in the country, is under undue attack from some unprogressive and self-seeking journalists and some so-called civil society activists operating under the aegis of the National Youth Coalition (NYC) and the little known about Youth Leadership Council Sierra Leone (YLCSL).

The crime AJME committed was to partner with Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) and the Campaign for Just Mining (CJM) to sound a wake-up call on the government to expedite the review of agreements or contracts signed with mining companies including Koidu Holdings Limited (KHL), London Mining Plc, African Minerals Limited (AML) and Sierra Rutile Company Limited.

It is worthy to note that the ongoing review of the said agreements and contracts was deemed necessary given that their terms are largely skewed against the interest of the country and its people.

AJME has never in its campaign for fair deals in the sector directed its fist at a particular mining company. If anything, no company has been spared, as evident in the number of investigative reports that have been put out over time in the public domain.

The fact that the criticisms against AJME are coming specifically from bedfellows of African Minerals Limited (AML) parading as journalists and youth activists, sends clear signals that the seeming divide and rule policy that is gradually degenerating in an all-out press war is apparently being machinated by AML.

It is for this reason that this piece will focus purely on putting some sense into the coconut of some shortsighted colleagues of ours in the media particularly, who without an iota of knowledge of what is obtaining in the mining and extractive sector, are allowing themselves to be used as paid-up agents.

Knowing its operations to be characterized by controversies, AML, headed by a controversial figure in the person of Frank Timis, a three times drug convict, has set the stage for the complete take-over of the local media.

Apart from filling the pages of most of our once content-based newspapers with strings of commercial advertisements, AML has also felt the need to establish its own pro-newspapers, with plans of setting up a radio station and television network in the shortest possible time.

Already, the company has covertly set up two newspapers. They are the ‘African Young Voices’ (AYV) headed by Theo Nicol, a senior colleague and the so-called ‘Ariogbo Newspaper’, headed by the inexperienced Abdul Fonti Kabia who I personally helped groom as editor. I often call him ‘Borbor Pain’ because of his steadfastness to duty and ability to work under tremendous pressure, while we were both at the Awareness Times.

Rather unfortunately, the Ariogbo newspaper of my former trainee has been on the forefront of launching personal attacks on AJME which I head as chairman, and even demonstrating readiness to go on a press war if AML continues to come under criticism.

Of course I will not reduce myself to the level of Abdul Fonti. I will only advice him to watch his steps because one reason why some of us have kept our cool till date is because of the long term friendship we’ve enjoyed as colleagues. We don’t want to see a situation wherein onetime friends and colleagues would suddenly go on the war path over a mining company that has not come to benefit the country and its people in the real sense of the word.

Let me, however, say to my boy, Abdul Fonti that the war he is trying to provoke will be too much for him and that any further trash from him will provoke nothing short of an all out press war and I dare state categorically here that AML will in this case be the direct object for attack, since it is its money at work.

While being gentle with Abdul Fonti who seems content with being sponsored by a corporate entity to launch undue attack on colleague journalists who have consciously refused to be pocketed as him and most others have, let me here state that the nation comes first and that any colleague who attempts to cast aspersions on our determination to expose the odds in our country’s mining and extractive sector which has been the subject of heartless exploitation for decades, will have doom spelled upon him/her.

In an article captioned ‘AJME, nar press war wuna want ba?’ published in the Ariogbo newspaper of Monday 12^th December 2011, an attempt was made not only to divert the public’s attention from the real issues, but also to discredit AJME.

The level of vagueness exhibited in the said article leaves one with the clear conclusion that it’s a hard job to do trying to paint white something that is black inside out.

In an attempt to paint AML white, Abdul Fonti or whoever was behind the quite misleading article that has since been dismissed as trash, raised the issues of employment and the bringing back of the train as reasons why AML should be adored and allowed to carry out its operations without any checks and balances.

The unknown author who is obviously afraid to associate his name with the said trash, also mentioned that everybody in the country including children coming up are aware of the fact that the coming of AML is a blessing in disguise to the nation and as a result nobody is grumbling over the operations of the company.  

This is hurting to say the least, because what the writer unknowingly tried to expose is his/her ignorance of the real situation on the ground. Go to Bumbuna Town and you’ll see people grumbling day in and day out and even referring to AML as a rogue company.

The only reliable water source that has served the needs of the people in Bumbuna since the 1970s has been polluted in the wake of the construction of the so-called 900 Man Camp by AML on the hill top of the township.

A couple of strike actions have been staged by affected persons within the AML operational area and wages of some categories of workers deemed to be incommensurate to the risks associated with their jobs. People have to bribe to secure jobs, according to some reports.

Most disturbing is the issue regarding the bringing back of the train. The major question is, for whom? Is it serving the needs of the people or the company? Is the re-introduction of the train out of love for our country or to fast track the pillaging of our mineral wealth? 

You can dance the corporate dance, but make sure you don’t touch non-dancers. Lonta!

I hang my case!!!

African Minerals Limited and the cocaine bust

Special Commentary

Could African Minerals be behind the latest cocaine bust???

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

A container loaded with a quantum of cocaine camouflaged in baby pampers has been intercepted by intelligence personnel at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Quay in Freetown.

There is no clue at the moment as to who the importer of the illegal substance is, given that the relevant documents are no where to be found.

Fingers have been pointed at the police officers who intercepted the said container as having done an unprofessional job, thereby making further investigation into the matter somehow difficult.

Accordingly, the police arrested the container without the slightest information regarding its ownership, destination and so on.

The suspicious container had gone through necessary checking procedures, loaded on a trailer and was just about to be taken out of the quay when intelligence from abroad caused it to be blocked.

The high levelness that surrounds the container in question including the mysterious disappearance of all relevant documents and the fact that the consignee is yet to be identified, has left tongues wagging.

The question that keeps coming to mind is how genuine are the people entrusted with the security and administration of the quay, especially giving the fact that the container section has long been privatized, with a French company called Bollore in charge.

The fact that the suspicious container was about leaving the quay when it eventually landed in the hands of security personnel courtesy of last minute foreign intelligence is an indication that this is not the first time such containers have come into the country via the quay.

Taking a closer look at the mysteries involved in the handling of the container and the sudden disappearance of the documents including a bill of laden, one can safely conclude that there is a big time conspiracy taking place at the quay. But who are the conspirators? One may ask.

One big room for conspiracy at the quay is the fact that multilateral companies operating in the country enjoy duty waivers and their consignments not subject to rigorous checking.

One such multilateral company enjoying this undue concession that is amounting to huge revenue loss for the nation, is African Minerals Limited owned by a controversial Romanian called Frank Timis.

It is no longer newsy that Frank Timis, who last year got listed in the Forbes list of billionaires, is on record as having been convicted on three separate drugs related charges.

One can only therefore refer to him as an expert in the business and given how powerful his company has become, it is almost likely that he would want to take advantage of the situation.

The amount of so-called expatriates that have been flown into the country by African Minerals Limited and other companies like Sierra Rutile Company Limited over the past years is huge, and the possibility cannot be overruled that most of them if not all, are directly linked to cocaine and other harmful drugs.   

Go to Makeni and Sierra Rutile where the two companies are active and see for yourself how our poor sisters are being sexually exploited by these so-called expatriates in exchange of a few leones.

Rumours have been doing the rounds that the excitement over the jobs being provided by especially African Minerals Limited and the purpose-based reintroduction of the train will soon be things to openly cry about rather than celebrate.

There is a big game plan for the taking over of the country. By making companies like African Minerals Limited become too powerful, it will warrant a situation wherein good people who otherwise cannot easily depart from their sense of patriotism and nationality losing grips of their integrity and becoming corrupt.

African Minerals Limited has enough money to throw around and what many people including some colleagues in the media don’t know is the fact that the monies the company is spending by way of operational cost are subject to specific deduction from revenues that should go into the national coffers.

This is a complete rip-off when one takes into account how much profit the country is getting as compared to what the company is taking away.

Because the company has enough money, whether clean or dirty, coupled with the fact that people are desperate to have a share of the loot, anything is possible.

It will reach a time when companies like African Minerals will be the ones determining who the next president of the republic will be and which political party should be in governance.

It’s all designed and mind you, African Minerals for instance has secured a 99 years infrastructural lease agreement that has a stability clause attached to it. The question is, has African Minerals become a part owner of Sierra Leone?

    

SLAJ boss threatens court action

Special Commentary

SLAJ boss threatens libel suit over thought provoking piece

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

The Regional Chairman North of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Stanley Bangura, who now officially doubles as Media Consultant for Addax Bioenergy Limited, has threatened to warrant a libel suit in respect of an article published under the byline above, in which a gentle call was made for him to resign his position in SLAJ and concentrate on his new found $600 corporate job.

In the said thought provoking piece, mention was made of the fact that many observers including journalists and civil society activists in Makeni and beyond consider Mr. Stanley Bangura´s new role with the controversial Addax Bioenergy Limited as a clear conflict of interest and sheer disgrace to the media profession, while he remains the duly elected SLAJ chairman responsible for the entire northern region.

The article in question mentioned further that in view of this, concerned journalists in Makeni have started putting modalities in place to force Mr. Bangura to resign from his position in SLAJ ahead of the organization’s 2013 biennial conference and that the said journalists have sounded the view that they no longer trust him to lead them.

All this came after Mr. Bangura who has been using the SLAJ Regional Secretariat in Makeni as a meeting/take-off point for journalists enlisted to go on Addax engagements, broke the ice after a long period of concealment, that he is Media Consultant for the company.

In line with official duties, Mr. Bangura has been publishing a couple of praise-signing and misleading articles in favour of the company, while at the same time launching media attacks on civil society organizations deemed to be critical of the short and long term adverse socio/economic and cultural impacts of the operations of the company on the people directly affected.

In one of the pro-Addax articles published under the byline of ‘Stanley Bangura’, it was stated rather erroneously that the presence of the company in the locality is a blessing in disguise as hundreds of jobs have been created and that the company has made possible an unprecedented rice harvest across its operational area.

An independent study conducted by experts from Ghana indicate that the livelihood of the communities affected by the operations of Addax has been placed under serious threat as evident by the illegal drying up of swamp lands, the pollution of traditional drinking water sources and the deprivation of indigenes from utilizing the land for their usual agricultural purposes, among others.

This makes rubbish the pro-Addax trashes circulated by the SLAJ regional chairman, who seems unconcerned about the overwhelming negative impacts of the Addax project on the communities affected.

The fact that Mr. Stanley Bangura who happens to be a major beneficiary of SLAJ is threatening court action involving a libel suit, is in itself a good reason to conclude that those who are actually suppose to be mounting pressure on government for the repeal of the seditious libel laws, are the very ones undermining the process.

As stated earlier, the Addax issue is a completely controversial one, and therefore the company’s move to kind of silence the media in that part of the country by capturing the head, could not only be seen as a crafty one, but one aimed at accelerating efforts by corporate entities to dominate or render impotent the local media.

Sierra Leone is currently experiencing what could best be referred to as a ‘media take-over’, a situation wherein the local media will be reduced to dancing the corporate dance, rather than dealing with the real issues at stake.

Deeply involved in the uncivilized act is African Minerals Limited (AML), a company owned by a controversial figure with three certificates of conviction in drugs dealing.

So far, the company has covertly established two newspapers namely the African Young Voices (AYV) and the so-called Ariogbo Newspaper, edited by Theo Nicol and Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti), respectively.

Plans are also underway to establish a powerful radio station and a television network to compete directly with the crumbling state-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC).

Already, AML has succeeded in weakening the local media by filling up limited newspaper pages with unending bogus commercial advertisements.

Except for a handful of local newspapers including Concord Times and Global Times, you can hardly see published anything critical of AML in all the other newspapers around. Just take a look at them.

It is estimated that AML is spending roughly Le 360,000,000 (Three Hundred and Sixty Million Leones) weekly on newspaper advertisements alone, with all ‘commissions’ (about %20) reportedly going directly to Anthony Navo Jr., also known as AML media front-man.

Bear in mind that these amounts are all calculated in the end and branded as operational costs, and therefore subject to specific deduction from revenues that should come to the state. The company loses nothing in actual terms.

Let me make haste to mention that it doesn’t mean that Concord Times and Global Times are not getting overflowing advertisements from AML. It’s just that they have the courage to risk not getting more.

The good thing worthy of celebration is the fact that the President of SLAJ, Umuru Fofanah, has thus far refused to be pocketed as most outstanding senior colleagues have. Take Theo Nicol for instance.

Another strategy employed by AML is to threaten nonconformist media houses with litigation, as was the case recently with Radio Democracy FM 98.1.

A dedicated reporter there, Fatima Sesay, did a reportage on an opinion pool she conducted in the AML operational area in Bumbuna, in which the company was accused of engaging in criminal activities and making life difficult for the vast majority of the indigenes.

Embarrassed by the reportage, lawyers acting for and on behalf of AML threatened the management of Radio Democracy with court action.

Rather humbly, Radio Democracy’s Farrie Kargbo with the full backing of management, few days later did a contrary reportage in which premium was given to questionable positive views about the company. There and then, the matter came to an end.

Currently, pro-AML journalists are busying themselves launching spiteful media attacks on civil society organizations and colleague journalists deemed to be critical of the operations of the company.

Taking the lead in this is the Ariogbo Newspaper which is shadowing as the property of Anthony Navo Jr., who cannot afford to toy with his unprecedented personal cash flow from the company. If AML is ordered closed today, he’ll be one of the most shattered…no doubt.

Another strategy the company might bring to bear is to reinstitute the thuggish ‘Highway’ tactic employed by the All People’s Congress (APC) under Siaka Stevens, to suppress opposing political views.

It goes without saying that AML has grown too powerful to tame. Imagine the possibility that the company has paid its royalties to government four years in advance to enable the latter balance its budget.

When one takes into perspective what the country is losing granting undue tax breaks to corporate entities and reminiscing the fact that mining activities have taken place in the country over the past 80 years with nothing to show in practical terms, it points out clearly that there is nothing to celebrate insofar as the continued exploitation of our precious mineral wealth is concerned.

Imagine a country that has produced trillions and trillions of dollars worth of qualitative and quantitative minerals still languishing at the very bottom of the human development index and even classified in a recent report as the worst place on earth to die.

This brings me back to SLAJ Northern Chairman, Stanley Bangura, who has been misleading the public into believing that Addax Bioenergy is God-sent.

Is the coming of companies like Addax to occupy vast hectares of our arable lands for periods exceeding five decades to establish massive plantations to produce products like ethanol for exclusive export to the European market, the reintroduction of slavery? This question should be of concern to all well meaning Sierra Leoneans.

The fact remains that such huge plantations have no space in Europe for instance and therefore attention is turned to countries like Sierra Leone where companies such as Addax Bioenergy are given the leverage to take advantage of weak laws, cheap labour, conducive weather condition and untapped international business treaties including the free trade agreement.

Stanley should be mindful of the fact that in those days, our brothers and sisters were taken overseas to work the plantations as unpaid slaves. Now the same plantations are being brought right to our doorsteps and shortsighted guys like him think we should blanketly celebrate.

I refuse to celebrate.

SLAJ boss turns Addax consultant

SLAJ Regional Chairman turns Addax Media Consultant

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

The Northern Region Chairman of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Stanley Bangura, has taken a job with Addax Bioenergy Limited as Media Consultant, with roughly $600 as his monthly pay package.

Rumours about Stanley Bangura´s new job have been going round for a long time but there had been no independent confirmation until recently when the man himself broke the ice while participating in a pro-Addax radio talk show on Radio Mankneh in Makeni.

During the said radio broadcast, Mr. Bangura, after introducing himself as media consultant for Addax, went on to shower praises on the company and referred to it as God-sent.

Many observers including journalists and civil society activists in Makeni and beyond consider Mr. Bangura´s new role with Addax as a conflict of interest and sheer disgrace to the profession, while he continues to serve as SLAJ regional chairman.

In view of this, concerned journalists in Makeni have started putting modalities in place to force Mr. Bangura to resign from his position in SLAJ ahead of the organization´s 2013 biennial conference. The said journalists have sounded the view that they no longer trust him to lead them.

Mr. Stanley Bangura as SLAJ regional chairman has been promoting the operations of Addax Bioenergy and even coordinating and chairing press conferences and other media/community engagements organized by the company in addition to circulating pro-Addax articles to newspapers and radio stations on commission.

Reports indicate that Mr. Bangura has been misusing his office as SLAJ regional chairman in his poise to promote the interest of Addax by using the SLAJ regional office as an assemble point for journalists going on Addax engagements.

Mr. Stanley Bangura in an article defending Addax and published worldwide with his byline, attempted to discredit the Makeni based Sierra Leone Right to Food Network (SiLNoRF) and its international partners over an independent study report in which very serious revelations were made regarding the adverse economic, social and cultural effects of the Addax project on the lives of the people directly affected.

Mr. Bangura is also part of a group called Civil Society Organizations for Peace and Development (CSOPAD), a group wildly believed to be an appendage of Addax. He is also said to have openly declared for the ruling All People´s Congress (APC), with plans to run for a political office. 

This unprofessional conduct by the SLAJ northern region chairman has been complained to the SLAJ headquarters in Freetown on a number of occasions without any action taken. Some reports indicate that Mr. Stanley Bangura is a blue eye boy of SLAJ President Umuru Fofanah, and is therefore well protected.

Meanwhile, Radio Mankneh FM 95.1, a renowned community broadcasting network, has been dubbed as a pro-Addax establishment and accused of suppressing radical views about the company.

There have reportedly been cases wherein ongoing radio talk shows by civil society organizations critical of Addax have been stopped halfway and also cases wherein panelists have been strictly warned not to touch on Addax.

The Addax project is currently a controversial issue in the Makeni general area as apart from the fact that the persons directly affected are yet to be fully convinced that it will contribute positively to their socio/economic salvation, the negative effects of the operations of the company have already started inflicting wounds in the minds of the people.

“The role of the media and civil society is crucial if only to get Addax to behave responsibly”, said Emmanuel Conteh (Pa Massim), who happens to be the Chiefdom Speaker of Bombali Shebora Chiefdom.