As Sign Of Solidarity Against Intimidation… Calls For Media Blackout Of Mambu Intensifies
By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
The Sierra Leonean media must stop entertaining politicians who mistake intimidation for authority, insults for intelligence, and political arrogance for leadership. Moses Mambu, the SLPP National Publicity Secretary, has become a disturbing example of the political hostility threatening independent journalism in Sierra Leone. His confrontational behaviour and the serious allegations surrounding his treatment of journalists demand more than routine condemnation. The time has come for a universal media boycott of Moses Mambu.
Mambu is becoming a political liability to the Sierra Leone People’s Party. A Publicity Secretary should defend policies, communicate ideas, and engage critics intelligently. Instead, his public engagements have become associated with confrontation, inflammatory pronouncements, and unnecessary hostility. The SLPP must decide whether such conduct represents the political culture it wishes to defend.
The reported confrontation involving journalist Thomas Josephus Dixon is particularly alarming. Following a television discussion at Africa Young Voices on 27 September 2026, Dixon complained that Mambu threatened him while invoking the death of journalist Ibrahim Samura. The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists subsequently demanded an independent investigation after receiving an eyewitness account supporting Dixon’s allegation. Mambu denied threatening him, but that denial does not diminish the seriousness of the complaint.
Ibrahim Samura died in June 2018 after suffering injuries in an assault during the election period. His death remains a painful reminder of the dangers confronting journalists. To invoke his death in a hostile confrontation with another journalist, as alleged, is profoundly disturbing. Samura’s memory must never become an instrument for frightening those whose responsibility is to question political power.
Thomas Dixon’s experience must also be considered aganst the wider history of threats directed at him. He has faced previous intimidation over his journalism. His reported decision to remain in hiding for almost a month because of fears for his life illustrates the devastating personal consequences of threats against media practitioners. No journalist should have to disappear from public life merely to remain alive.
We must equally remember Amadu Lamrana Bah, another journalist who faced threats following his critical commentary on matters of national concern. His experience attracted condemnation from SLAJ and exposed the growing danger of allowing political disagreements to become personal intimidation. Although the reported threats against Bah arose from a separate controversy, his experience demonstrates that journalists across Sierra Leone are confronting an increasingly hostile environment.
How many journalists must be threatened before the media fraternity recognises that professional solidarity requires collective action? How many more must live in fear before political intimidation becomes unacceptable to everyone?
Mambu’s controversial pronouncements extend beyond his confrontations with journalists. His reported suggestion that Sierra Leone’s next presidential election would take place in 2030 rather than 2028 represents another troubling example of political recklessness. Sierra Leone’s established five-year electoral cycle places the next regular presidential election in 2028. A party Publicity Secretary cannot rewrite constitutional arrangements through political declarations.
President Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP leadership must understand that silence over serious allegations involving senior party officials damages public confidence. Political loyalty cannot justify hostility towards journalists, and holding a publicity position does not confer unlimited access to media platforms.
I therefore call upon the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, radio stations, television broadcasters, newspaper editors, online publishers, and independent media practitioners to adopt a universal, voluntary media boycott of Moses Mambu.
No studio invitations. No discretionary political interviews. No privileged appearances designed to amplify his political messaging. Every participating media institution should stand together until the serious concerns surrounding his conduct have been addressed and credible assurances of professional respect are provided.
This universal boycott should be implemented through lawful editorial decisions, without preventing factual reporting, independent investigation, or publication of Mambu’s responses. The public’s right to information must remain protected. Political accountability and media independence must operate together.
The SLPP has every right to retain Mambu. However, the media has an equally important responsibility to protect its members and refuse to normalise intimidation.
If the SLPP wants to keep Moses Mambu, let it keep him. But Sierra Leone’s media must speak with one voice. Ibrahim Samura deserves remembrance, Thomas Dixon deserves protection, Amadu Lamrana Bah deserves justice, and every journalist deserves the freedom to work without fear. No politician is bigger than the press, and no political party should expect journalists to surrender their dignity for access to power.
