Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is an anglophone West African country of around 9 million people, with its capital at Freetown and the Leone (SLE) as its currency, redenominated in July 2022 at a 1,000:1 ratio from the old Leone (SLL). The country is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union. President Julius Maada Bio, of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), is the 5th President of the Republic; he assumed office on 4 April 2018 and was re-elected on 24 June 2023 with approximately 56 percent of the vote (a result disputed by the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and noted by the European Union Election Observation Mission). The Vice President is Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. Bio also serves as Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government since 22 June 2025 and has chaired/coordinated the African Union Committee of Ten (C-10) on UN Security Council reform; Sierra Leone held a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 term.

The country’s media-regulatory environment is anchored by the Independent Media Commission (IMC), a statutory regulator with jurisdiction over the wider mass-media environment, including broadcast and print/electronic media. The supervising ministry for state media is the Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MOICE), renamed from the previous Ministry of Information and Communications under the Bio second-term government and headed by Minister Chernor Bah since July 2023. A separate Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation handles the digital-infrastructure and telecommunications portfolio. The 2020 repeal of the 1965 Public Order Act’s seditious-libel provisions remains the period’s most significant pro-press reform.

The 2024-2026 review period saw substantial regulatory activity. The Counter-Terrorism Bill was passed by Parliament on 11 March 2025 and signed into law by President Bio as the Counter-Terrorism Act 2025 in September 2025 after amendments addressing some media-freedom concerns raised by SLAJ, RSF, CPJ, MFWA and the IFJ; journalists’ groups continued to call for further reforms, especially around Section 44(2) of the Cyber Security and Crime Act. In April 2026, Cabinet approved Sierra Leone’s first National Data Protection Policy and authorised the drafting of a new Data Protection and Right to Access Information Act that would repeal the existing Right to Access Information Commission Act and create a single unified authority. Sierra Leone ranked 79th of 180 in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index with a score of 57.06, down from 56th in 2025, a 23-place fall; SLAJ, the Sierra Leone Reporters Union and the Media Freedom Coalition publicly warned of mounting threats to journalism.

Two state media outlets are tracked in the SMM dataset for Sierra Leone, both classified State-Controlled. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) — State-Controlled — is the national public broadcaster, operating television and radio services nationwide from headquarters in the New England neighbourhood of Freetown. SLBC’s institutional roots go back to early colonial broadcasting in Freetown in the 1930s (the SLBC Act identifies the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) as established in 1935); the corporation was legally established by the SLBC Corporation Act 2009 (Act No. 1 of 2010) and operationally launched in 2010 through the transformation of SLBS and merger with the UN peacekeeping Radio UNAMSIL, with formal inauguration on 15 June 2010 by then-President Ernest Bai Koroma and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA) — State-Controlled — is the national state news agency, operating from central Freetown and supplying wire, web and multi-format dispatch news through its slena.gov.sl platform. SLENA was founded in 1977 under cabinet conclusion CP43 (77)15 as Sierra Leone’s official news agency; it is publicly described as semi-autonomous, although no standalone SLENA Act or current statutory text was identified in the public record during this review. The major review-period development was the official relaunch of SLENA by President Bio on 11 December 2025 at the Salone Civic Festival 2025, alongside the Sierra Leone Daily Mail, the National Film Policy and the Records and Archives Policy; the relaunch highlighted growth from five staff members to a professional workforce of thirty, and referred to a new Strategic Plan and a draft SLENA Policy under review.

Neither outlet has shifted classification during the review period: SLBC has been continuously State-Controlled since 2022, and SLENA enters the SMM dataset for 2026 with a State-Controlled classification.

Media profiles