This Report, which addresses issues on ‘Freedom of Expression and of the Press, Access to Information, and Internet Freedom and Digital Rights in Sierra Leone,’ is the Fifteenth in a series produced by the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) as part of a project titled “Enhancing Press Freedom and Media Reforms”, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the United States of America. The Report, which covers the period June to November 2025, is the outcome of the monitoring of the exercise and legal guarantees of freedom of expression and the press, and internet freedom and digital rights issues in Sierra Leone, including invitations, intimidation, attacks, assaults, arrests, detentions, and prosecution of journalists and other citizens; and also tracks media performance.
The MRCG noted that there were still inconclusive cases at the end of the reporting period across the first edition of the Press Freedom Reports (June to November 2018), second edition (December 2018 to May 2019), third edition (June to November 2019), fourth edition (December 2019 to May 2020), fifth edition (June to November 2020), sixth edition (December 2020 to May 2021), seventh edition (June to November 2021), eighth edition (December 2021 to May 2022), ninth edition (June to November 2022), tenth edition (December 2022 to May 2023), eleventh edition (June to November 2023), twelfth edition (December 2023 to May 2024), thirteenth edition (June to November 2024), fourteenth edition (December 2024 to May 2025), and fifteenth edition(June to November 2025). One hundred and four cases were monitored from the Press Freedom Report’s first to the fifteenth edition. Seventy were concluded, settled, resolved, or dropped because of lack of progress; eight were still in court, twenty-six were still under police investigation, and nine were abandoned due to lack of progress.
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