Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education, Hon. Chernor Bah, joined a high-level panel featuring President Emmanuel Macron of France, President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, and other world leaders at the International Conference on Information Integrity and Independent Media in Paris. The conference, co-convened by Presidents Macron and Mahama, gathered heads of state and international partners to strengthen global cooperation for information integrity, combat disinformation, and support responsible, independent media. Minister Bah was accompanied by Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to France, Mohamed Kanja Sesay.
Representing His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio, Minister Bah commended the President’s bold leadership in advancing media freedom and open information governance in Sierra Leone. He highlighted landmark reforms such as the decriminalization of criminal libel, the adoption of a progressive National Information Policy, the imminent Data Protection law, and the establishment of a National Fund for Public Interest Media. He described the fund as a pioneering model for public-private-development collaboration to support independent journalism. Minister Bah underscored that these reforms reflect President Bio’s conviction that democracy and trust can only flourish where citizens are well-informed and the media operates freely and responsibly.
World leaders and institutions at the Paris forum reaffirmed their shared commitment to defend information integrity, combat information pollution, and sustain independent, ethical journalism in an era of misinformation and digital disruption. Minister Bah reaffirmed Sierra Leone’s continuing leadership as current Chair of ECOWAS, championing a regional culture of freedom of information and public interest media. He called for deeper global partnerships to ensure that access to free, factual, and reliable information remains a universal public good and the bedrock of democratic governance.
