The State of Media Freedom in Sierra Leone 2018-2020.

This report tracks press freedom issues in Sierra Leone within the last three years-2018-2020. It is
dubbed the State of Media Freedom in Sierra Leone. The report contains an overview of laws,
policies and institutions governing the media space in Sierra Leone; key press freedom and safety
of journalists’ issues; summary of press freedom violations recorded over the period, analysis of
trends of violations, key perpetrators and victims; status of redress of violations; and
recommendations to both governmental and non-governmental stakeholders on how to improve
the situation.
It reviews the arrest and detentions of journalists over the years using criminal and seditious libel
laws in Part V ‘Defamatory and Seditions Libel Defamation’ of the Public Order Act (POA) of
1965 (No. 46 1965), before the said laws were repealed. Part V of the POA served as an obstacle
to the media in terms of fulfilling its democratic roles due to increased fear of incarceration arising
from the provisions of the law which undermined freedom of expression guaranteed by the
Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No. 6 of 1991 and by extension, international best practices and
standards. Those events spawned negative media coverage internationally and somehow smeared
Sierra Leone’s democratic credentials especially in press freedom rankings.