By Amin Kef (Ranger)
President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, on the 25th April, 2023 paid a courtesy call on the offices of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) at Massachusetts Avenue, North West, Washington, DC in the US where he was warmly welcomed by a cross-section of the NDI Program Team on Africa and Sierra Leone.
The SLAJ President held discussions which centered mainly on the NDI-SLAJ combating disinformation in Sierra Leone’s June 2023 elections project and the state of the media in the small West African country ahead of the elections.
Both parties agreed that there is a need for synergy, collaboration, and networking among stakeholders for robust social media monitoring and fact-checking so that citizens will have more access to reliable and credible information during the elections.
A small NDI team is expected in Freetown in the first week of May 2023 to work with local consultants in training fact-checkers and the project team responsible for the project implementation.
The meeting climaxed with the presentation of a gift from SLAJ bearing the logo of NDI done in ‘gara’ print, and expressing warm greetings from the Association.
The SLAJ President is in the US on the US State Department-funded Edward Murrow Program for Journalists/International Visitor Leadership Program which ended on April 21 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Nasralla is also expected to visit the offices of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in the coming days to talk about the media, freedom of expression, democracy, and Sierra Leone’s June 2023 elections.
The SLAJ President is scheduled for interviews tomorrow at the Voice of America radio and television.
The SLAJ President was accompanied by the Acting President of Sierra Leonean journalists in the Diaspora, Alpha Kamara.
