By Amin Kef Sesay
One of Sierra Leone’s most outstanding youth activists and journalists, Amb Foday Moriba Conteh has on Thursday 5th November, 2020 appealed to journalists to use professionalism in reporting bullying related issues in the country. He made this disclosure during his presentation at a one day symposium organized by Anti-Bullying Initiative Worldwide- Sierra Leone Chapter (ABI-Worldwide) on the topic “The Role of the Media in Preventing Bullying in Schools”, an event that was held at the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL) Conference Hall at Brookfields in Freetown.
He furthered that the media coverage of social issues has a profound impact on how communities understand and address problems adding that research and expert opinion suggest that certain trends in media coverage relating to bullying have the potential to cause harm. In that regard, he admonished journalists to use professionalism in reporting such issues.
The Youth Activist maintained that bullying affects the community and creates a negative school climate and is linked to later substance abuse by victims who may use alcohol and drugs to cope with emotional pain, adding that boys who bully are more likely to be involved in crime as adults, adding that bullying occurs in different forms such as threats, teasing, name calling, exclusion, preventing others from going where they want to go or doing what they want to do, pushing, hitting and all forms of physical violence also highlighting that the severity of bullying vary from case to case.
Foday Moriba Conteh stated that the community can prevent bullying and schools can create a sense of belonging as well as support norms against bullying of which must be seen in students showing respect for one another.
The Youth Activist pointed out that parents can set examples by being kind, talk with their children and work with school authorities to address bullying maintaining that in order to combat bullying in the society Government should provide information on what bullying is, what cyber bullying is, who is at risk and how one can prevent and respond to bullying.
Underscoring certain information which should be included while reporting on bullying related issues, he said, analysis of media articles has shown that certain elements of bullying stories are often missing, including: information about those who bully of which he said could be very difficult to obtain, but at least represent what generally is known about youth who bully, including the many risk factors they face, the negative effects bullying has on these youth and the fact that youths who bully are not all alike and some are also bullied themselves.
Foday Moriba Conteh added that the effect of bullying should be explained stating that the multitude of problems associated with bullying could be attempts to commit suicide, absenteeism, drug and alcohol abuse and depression saying that most of these effects can last into adulthood and can also have negative effects on the school and the community.
He said communication is key in dealing with bullying in schools, adding that when teachers have open communication with their pupils, the latter will feel more open to talk to them about their problems including bullying and that having classroom meetings is one way to build that communication.
The Youth Activist encouraged journalists to use professionalism and do accurate reporting to make the world safer for kids, adding that without information about prevention, media coverage implies that bullying has no solution, a misrepresentation of the current state of the researchers. He concluded by underscoring that members of the audience will be left with only a sense of hopelessness.
