Photo of Sophie in a Ferry, departing Sierra Leone
By Mohamed Dauda Kamara
In Sierra Leone, the recent twist between a Dutch journalist, Sophie Van Leeuwen, and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), has revealed that the country’s press freedom is still on shards, bleeding.
Sophie Van Leeuwen, a correspondent for RTL Nieuws, had travelled from the Netherlands to investigate a scoop about the whereabouts of a Dutch drug Lord, Jos Leijdekkers, with permission from this country’s authorities.
Upon her arrival, Sophie narrated that she was apprehended by armed police men on her way to locate Leijdekkers, leading to the confiscation of her phone, camera, and passport.
She was detained on allegations of ‘espionage,’ undergoing approximately 15 hours of interrogation without breaks or food.
She claimed that the security personnel had seen her as a “danger to national security,” but she did not complain of any physical abuse. “On Sunday evening, I got my stuff back. It turned out they had erased all my images,” she stated.
Upon her departure, Sophie wrote on X, stating that there’s no press freedom in Sierra Leone, a statement that now exposes the wounds in the country’s press freedom.
“I left Freetown at night in a ferry across the lagoon. My work has been destroyed. My colleague Joseph Turay fears for his life. There’s no press freedom in Sierra Leone,” she wrote on X.
However, the sad reality of what journalists in Sierra Leone face while doing their investigative jobs can better be described according to what Sophie went through.
In Sierra Leone, local journalists, who are passionate about uncovering wrongdoings and practicing investigative journalism, are particularly at risk of being muzzled by political actors and their affiliates.
When President Julius Maada Bio assumed office in 2018, there was a gleam of hope for press freedom, especially after repealing the obnoxious Libel Law which criminalized defamation.
But that hope has been short-lived, following cases of threats on prominent journalists in the country under his administration.
In 2024, the Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, appraised government’s commitment to uphold and maintain press freedom after several threats and abuses on a prominent Journalist, Amadu Lamrana Bah, who had been critical about government’s policies.
In December 2024, another popular journalist, Thomas Dickson, disappeared for few days after he was threatened by the Inspector General of Police over a statement where he had referred to the inspector as being “arrogant.”
Monthly reports by the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) have sufficed that the country’s press freedom is still on shards, with little effort to resuscitate it.
