As a direct result of increasing unemployment, there has been a mushrooming in the number of newspapers in Sierra Leone, the profession of journalism appears to have reached saturation point. The exact number of newspapers in the country is hard to determine, but it cannot be less than 50. The late introduction of mass communication as an academic pursuit in the country, in 1992, underlines the fact that more than 80 per cent of practising journalists in Sierra Leone are untrained and unqualified. Many of them are secondary school dropouts. Also, the proliferation of newspapers in the country has affected street corner sales of newspapers considerably.
Advertisements are hard to obtain, except during national festivals or holidays.
Consequently, some newspaper houses have gone under while others have embarked on various forms of unprofessional conduct to keep their papers alive. These include smearing people's character with the view to being asked by the victims to help 'control the damage'. In fact, many press houses have staff members, including reporters, who are not on the payroll. In effect, these reporters are asked indirectly to compromise their ethics to keep body and soul together. Not surprisingly, the public is losing, if it has not already lost, respect for journalists.