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Sierra Leone: APC Shuts Down SLPP Radio Station
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Concord Times (Freetown)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Ibrahim Tarawallie
Freetown
Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) Jacob Jusu Saffa Saturday said his party's unity radio station has been shut down on the instruction of the minister of information and communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.
Although the minister was said to have traveled to Cairo, Egypt on Friday, his deputy Mohamed Koroma has denied claims by the opposition party, and said there was never an attempt to shut down the radio station.
"We did not shut down the radio station but we disconnected the antenna," he said adding that the reason for that was because they have received several complaints from frequency users that the station was interfering with their operations.
"When we checked our list, we found out that unity radio was not there as one of the stations that are supposed to be broadcasting in the country." Meanwhile, Saffa told journalists at his party's headquarters on Wallace Johnson Street that: "when I contacted the minister to find out why the station was shut down, he said he had instructed Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service engineers to shut down the station because the radio was 'interfering with other frequencies'." He said it was wrong for the minister to have issued a directive to shut down the radio station as such issues does not fall directly under the purview of his ministry.
"If there was any frequency interference, the responsibility was with the Independent Media Commission and National Telecommunication Company that have assigned the frequency to the station to notify us," he argued.
He said the radio did not allocate the 94.9 frequency to itself, adding that they applied to the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) for space at Leicester Peak and permission was granted them in writing which was also copied the permanent secretary of the ministry of information and communications.
Saffa pointed out that it was evident from the behavior of the minister and his deputy that their actions were part of a carefully contrived scheme to curtail their freedom of expression by keeping the radio off air.
"The APC government has no intention to abide by the basic rules of democratic governance. The shut down of the radio station has the backing of state house," he said.
He said they are going to use every tool guaranteed by law to resist the frontal attack on their fundamental freedoms.
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SLPP's national chairman Alhaji Unisa N. S. Jah said: "the silence of the radio station for three days is not because we are unable to operate it but it is because of the sinister moods." He said people have been waiting for the radio station to come on as a source to give them accurate information.
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