History
The first modern printing press in Africa arrived in Freetown in 1794 but was destroyed by a French raiding party before it could be used. When another press became operational in 1800 it allowed the newspapers the Sierra Leone Advertiser and the Royal Gazette to begin publication. In the 1860s Sierra Leone developed into a hub of African journalism with professional from all over Africa employed by the country’s newspapers. The media boom also had an international dimension with newspaper professionals from around the world settling in the country. For example, the New Era paper was set up by West Indian William Drake. The year 1855 saw the foundation of the African Interpreter and Advocateby F A Belgrave founded and of the Sierra Leone weekly by Charles Bannerman. In the period newspapers were politically outspoken covering topics including stories about racism, colonialism and the rights of Africans. The industry went into decline at the end of the 19th century due to low levels of sales, which were the main source of income for newspapers.
In 1934 the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) was formed from the Freetown Rediffusion Service making it the earliest English language radio broadcast service in West Africa. Television broadcasts started in 1963 as a cooperation between the SLBS and commercial interests. Coverage was extended to all districts in 1978 when the service was also upgraded to colour.
Isaac Theophilus Akuna Wallace Johnson started the African Standard in 1939 the newspaper of Sierra Leone's branch of the West African Youth League. In the same year the Daily Mail began and was to become one of the longest running papers in the country and its leading paper closing from 1970 and early 1980s. It closed in the late 1990s but was revived on line in 2010 by three journalists, Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu, Ahmed Kamara and David Tam-Baryoh. At the end of the 20th century the newspaper industry experienced a decline with more than 40 newspapers ceasing publication between 1991 and 2007. This was also the time when newspapers developed in terms of business management, and when computers and mobile phones started to be used by journalist.
Read more about this topic: Sierra Leonean Media
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“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)