News Story

FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE CORRESPONDENT: With the closure of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) radio station by the APC government in Sierra Leone, one would expect human rights organizations and other international organizations to condemn such undemocratic moves. Most organizations are carefully watching the issue unfold. However, to the astonishment of most people, it seems the Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) Organization seem to be in bed of the oppressive APC government, at least through their country director in Sierra Leone, Mr. Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell.

Included in the JHR’s mission statement is a statement about “improving peace and security, and strengthening the democratization process.” Unfortunately, it seems Mr. Hallowell is too partisan to respect or even countenance that mission statement. Mr. Hallowell has violated that basic tenet of neutrality by actively engaging in party political partisanship and remaining silent on the APC government's suppression of free speech.

Mr. Hallowell has refused to comment on the continuing arrests and harrassment of opposition supporters and journalists who write articles that are critical of the APC government. His organisation's web site has deliberately refused to comment on such issues as the arrests of and other threats made against journalists as Jonathan Leigh, Dr Sylvia Blyden and others. He has failed to consistently document persistent brutalisations of opposition supporters. In the ongoing ban of opposition radio broadcasts, Mr. Hallowell has made statements that are both insenstive and disrespectful of the basic principles of political pluralism and the freedom of expression which are central to the mission of Journalists for Human Rights as an organisation.

On the issue of the closure of the opposition radio station, Mr. Hallowell who was expected to take the government to task was actually distributing a government press release justifying the closure of the radio station. Earlier on, Mr. Hallowell had cast aspersion on whether in fact the opposition’s radio station was off the air. People who read Mr. Hallowell’s statement were shocked. Mr. Hallowell lives in Freetown and all he had to do was to tune to the radio station to find out whether the station was off the air. Sources close to the SLPP report that Mr. Hallowell neither attended nor sent a representative of the JHR to the press conference called by the SLPP. One would think that the JHR would at least listen to the opposition’s complaints. The JHR failed to distribute the SLPP’s press release but promptly did so for the ruling party.

The million dollar question on the lips of observers is whether in fact Mr. Hallowell took the job of Journalists for Human Rights to prompt a repressive government in stead of protecting the rights of journalists. This question becomes very pertinent because Journalists for Human Rights were also very quiet when the same APC government tried to unlawfully curtail the freedom of speech of Awareness Times by tying to arrest its publisher. To date, there has been no statement of condemnation from JHR Sierra Leone. The country director of JHR, Mr. Gbanabom Hallowell has been busy lately being the mouthpiece for government programs, specifically, the attitudinal change program. The New People would like JHR to make its position on journalists and human rights in Sierra Leone clear. Is the organisation, like its country director, Mr. Gbanabom Hallowell, in Sierra Leone to support the rights of journalists or to work to justify the actions of a repressive government that is actively harrassing journalists, humiliating opposition supporters, and banning oopposition radio stations?