‘Sedition to allege a presidential affair’
A JOURNALIST in Sierra Leone has gone into hiding after receiving death threats. Sylvia Blyden published in her newspaper Awareness Times a story alleging that the President was having an extramarital affair. The president’s press spokesman accused her of “seditious libel” and insinuated that Sylvia Blyden was having affairs with a number of men, including the head of the opposition.
Two days later Umaru Sitta Turay, editor of the bi-weekly New People, was slashed in the throat by two men who accused him of being close to Sylvia Blyden and of publishing articles damaging the president’s reputation. He was not seriously hurt.