HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY INFORMATION MINISTER OF SIERRA LEONE

Under a new philosophical premise, Sierra Leone's Government would treat information as a basic human need, placing it on the same level as food and shelter, Information and Broadcasting Minister Cecil Blake said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

Responding to correspondents' questions, the new Minister said ensuring that the centrality of information was not downplayed had been a key part of his task since taking office last month.  He intended to institute a bottom-up flow of information to the Government, in addition to the top-down transmission of Government information.

"We cannot avoid that.  In fact the more people are aware of things, the less there is a prospect for people to misinterpret, misinform and create chaos," Mr. Blake said.  "Many problems arise because people do not know what is going on, or they have only one side of an explanation as to what is going on," he added.

Asked by another journalist to comment on media reports about official corruption, the Minister said the Government had set up a mechanism that regularly advertised the anti-corruption message in Creole, which practically everybody understood, as well as other languages.

Mr. Blake said the Government was trying to maximize information flow as much as possible.  People could only make their own intelligent judgements when they had information that would assist them in arriving at those judgements.  Access to first-hand information was critical in enabling people to evaluate information received from print and radio reports.

He said the Government was working very hard to ensure that corrupt practices neither derailed the peace process nor obstructed reconstruction efforts to restore normalcy in Sierra Leone.

Did Sierra Leone have problems with other governments? another correspondent asked.

Mr. Blake pointed out that the United Nations had approved sanctions against neighbouring Liberia, and that the West African subregion as a whole was going through difficulties.  While Sierra Leone was on the path to peace, there were problems in Liberia as well as Guinea.  "We have to work within the context of this kind of evolution and we are trying to ascertain that our national integrity is no longer compromised," the Minister added.

Asked to pinpoint specific enemies of his country, he recalled that that the United Nations had identified Liberia as a supporter of Sierra Leonean rebels and had taken action against that country.  Other countries, such as Burkina Faso, had been mentioned.  However, the subregion itself, in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the international community, had put mechanisms in place to facilitate exchanges aimed at alleviating the difficulties confronting Sierra Leone and the subregion as a whole.

Was there any progress on the funding and establishment of the proposed Special Court for Sierra Leone? another correspondent asked.

Mr. Blake said funds were coming in.  The international community and Sierra Leone were committed to the proposed Special Court, and the process was under way.

Regarding a deadline for funding contributions for the Court, Allieu Ibrahim Kanu, Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who accompanied the Minister, replied that on Wednesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan had reinforced his 23 March appeal by calling for contributions to be sent by

29 June.  Quite a substantial amount of money had come in, he added.

* *** *