This decision depicts a positive outcome by the Independent Media Commission to rule against the SLBC, two government institution, and shows the rule of law can be upheld and respected when common sense is considered.

However, this event is related to several developments concerning freedom of expression, media freedom and civil society activities. Similar incidents happened in the past with the detention by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Thomas Dixon, Chairman of the Guild of Newspaper Editors and publisher of the New Age Newspaper, for reporting on a suit by NASSIT against Leone Rock Metal Group, recent manhandling of an African Young Voice Television  (AYV TV) reporter by Police officers in Freetown, Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) staff brutally assaulting the Editor for the Open Space Newspaper,  Speaker of Parliament’s ban on Melvin Tejan Mansaray, Thomas Dixon going into hiding after calling out the Inspector General of police’s overreach on his Facebook page, and Dutch journalist Sophie Van Leeuwen arrested and detained by the Sierra Leone Police after she was in the country investigating Jos Leijdekkers story that as a fugitive drug lord, he is hiding in Sierra Leone. Related events in the past year also include the arbitrary arrest and detention of civil society activist Thomas Babadi, together with Wadi Williams, a politician, in December 2024 for a planned protest. Many believe this pattern of silencing dissent and targeting its critics is part of this broader trend of democratic backsliding.