By Cheryl Alafia Thomas
The Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) Sierra Leone is expanding its advocacy on Transitional Justice (TJ), as part of a renewed drive to raise awareness through media and community engagement.
This is part of a project titled: “Engaging the Media and Communities to Change the Narrative on Transitional Justice Issues in Sierra Leone”, whose major aim is to increase public awareness on TJ issues in the country and the African Union-Transitional Justice policy (AU-TIP).
The project will be implemented for two years (August 2024-July 2026), thanks to a grant from the African Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF).
MRCG is a journalism training organization that is geared towards ensuring professionalism, independence and sustainability in the media. This collaboration with the ATJLF started since 2020, when it conducted a baseline study of media institutions and practitioners to gauge knowledge on transitional justice issues in the country. The findings of that study informed the first phase of the project which entailed training of journalists with the goal of popularizing transitional justice issues.
The organization says this year, the project activities will focus on media advocacy for a national transitional justice policy framework, and it will seek to integrate “Media and Transitional Justice” as a course module. There will be more regional training of journalists on transitional justice issues. And as in the previous phase, this one will also seek to produce more stories on the subject, community engagement and media series on the AU-TJP.
The project will focus mainly on two communities in the Port Loko district – Mile 91, where the Peace Monument is located, and the Komrabai Ferry, both of which were refurbished as part of the first phase in 2022.
