Freetown. 13 February 2025: The Sierra Leone Broadcasters’ Association (SiLBA) joins the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), the Government of Sierra Leone, other local partners, and the global community to celebrate this day. The global theme of this year’s World Radio Day celebration, ‘Radio and Climate Change’ addresses climate change and its negative impacts on humanity. It underscores the critical role of radio in increasing environmental awareness, promoting green practices, amplifying voices, and advocating for environmental sustainability.
In Sierra Leone, a country highly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts on the environment such as flooding, extreme heat, coastal erosion, degradation, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, the event will be marked by a series of activities including a simulcast panel discussion on SiLBA member and partner radio stations nationwide around the localised theme, ‘Leveraging radio journalism for climate awareness’, which presents an opportunity to highlight the critical role of radio in the global efforts to halt or mitigate these threats.
As Radio is one of the most popular and resilient communication media, the objectives of these engagements are to strengthen the capacity of broadcasters to deliver accurate and engaging climate change content and increase public awareness and behavioural change through impactful radio programming.
‘The potential of radio to mitigate the climate crisis and ensure sound environmental management and resilience at community, national and global levels is unmatched. Thus there is the urgent need for capacity-building for its full realisation; and for strengthening partnerships among national and international stakeholders that are supporting climate communication and actions’, said Stanley Bangura, the SiLBA Chairman.
Since radio provides real-time information and effectively connects communities, SiLBA and partners desire to use this day to call for the full implementation of The African Charter on Broadcasting 2001, dubbed, ‘The Windhoek + 10 Declaration’, as a matter of urgency, and urge the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to keep their commitment to audit the process every five years, given the pace of broadcast media development, and be responsive to the challenges faced by broadcast journalists in the constantly changing face of globalisation.
About SiLBA
SiLBA is a broadcast media advocacy and membership-based non-profit, incorporated in Sierra Leone in 2022 to fulfil the crucial need for a national umbrella association for broadcasters, safeguard their rights, collective interests and welfare, and improve their professional outputs.
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Daniel Amara
National Secretary General
