By S. Siapha Mulbah
The newly inducted president of the Sports Writer Association of Liberia, Varmah Amara Kamara, has cautioned sporting federations in the country to stop being selective in the dissemination of information to sports journalists and avoid censoring the coverage of news by deciding to work with selected journalists for events and activities.
In what was considered as a firing induction statement over the weekend at the Monrovia City Hall, Kamara described the decision of sporting federations to work with selective panels of journalists while the entire membership of the sports writers strives to inform the public on happenings in sports, as a major vice that is confronting the sector.
He said, over the years, members of the sports writing body had been denied access to cover major activities in the sporting sector because the authorities at the various federations had decided to work with people of their choice, leaving out the majority population of the association.
Kamara called on all federations in the sporting sector of Liberia, with emphasis on the Liberia Football Association, to open its working relationship with the general membership of the Sports Writers’ Association, so that their different audiences, and the general public, can have information on the development in the sports community.
“As an organization, we base our work on credible reporting and information dissemination, but it is a glaring fact that sporting federations, including the Liberia Football Association, continues to create bottlenecks in the discharge of our duties,” he said.
The sports writers’ leader explained that the local football association has failed in its responsibilities to strengthen the two parties’ relationship as partners, but is only bent on censorship and creating a division amongst sports journalists through its selective decisions among them.
“It’s a shame that despite frantic efforts by the outgoing leadership to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between SWAL and LFA to strengthen our bonds, it has not been utilized under the Mustapha Raji administration,” he averred.
“Unlike in the past, only a few selected members of the organization are secretly chosen to cover activities of the football house while the majority of our members are left in the cold to feed on 3rd party information. Money or no money, kindly extend the invitation to everyone and not a selected few, as it was done during the regimes of Musa Hassan Bility, Izetta Wesley, and Edwin Melvin Snowe. Today, the football house has turned into a secret cult, with only a few people privileged to vital information intended for the public,” he added.
At the same time, Varmah Kamara urged members of the body to venture into reporting the hard facts and digging out the covered deeds of those impeding the development of the sector to avoid being propagandists.
He said sports journalists should set aside greed and individualistic interests or agendas to pressure those responsible individuals and governing bodies for a possible outcome in terms of its development on all fronts.
“While we strive to hold these stakeholders to account, we must not also forget that we have a responsibility to uphold the ethics of journalism. Now is the time for us to prove our prowess as an institution, compelling these stakeholders to ensure that all sports journalists are given a level playing field,” he concluded.
