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| Security forces guard a checkpoint in an area of Monrovia that was in quarantine for several days as part of government efforts to try to contain Ebola in Liberia. (Reuters |
With the Ebola epidemic predicted to get worse, the Liberian government has taken
action to silence news outlets critical of its handling of the health crisis
which, according to Liberia's Information Ministry, has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the
country since March.
Publishers have been harassed and forced to cease printing,
and journalists were initially not exempt from a curfew, making it difficult
for them to work, according to the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).
During this challenging time, the action by authorities is
serving only to strengthen "the distrust" between the government and
the media, PUL stated in a letter to Justice Minister Christiana Tah on September 4.
In the letter, union president Abdullai Kamara cited several accounts of
harassment and intimidation, including cases involving Women Voices, FrontPageAfrica,
and the National Chronicle, which have all come under
pressure in recent weeks.
Kamara cited police harassment in late August of Helen Nah,
Liberia's only female publisher, who runs the privately owned Women Voices,
over a story alleging police corruption in the distribution of funds meant for
the Ebola crisis, according to news reports
Kamara also condemned action by the police and Environmental
Protection Agency over attempts to remove a generator from the independent
paperFrontPageAfrica,
according to news reports. The police and agency did not have a court order, but
were acting on complaints made by a former government minister, the report
said. The critical paper and its staff have been harassed previously, according
to CPJ research.
In 2013, the newspaper was shut down,
and its publisher Rodney Sieh imprisoned,
for failing to pay $1.5 million in civil damages to Chris Toe, a former
government minister. In 2012, International Press Freedom Awardee Mae Azango was
forced into hiding over threats against
the journalist and her daughter because of her reports on
female genital mutilation.
PUL has highlighted the "disregard for the freedom of
media" in Liberia, and noted how on August 20, despite consultation with
the press, the government excluded the media from a list of professionals
exempt from a nine-hour curfew imposed under the Ebola state of emergency. Although the government reversed course a week later, several accredited
journalists with the privately-owned Daily
Observerwere stopped by police for about 30 minutes in the capital,
Monrovia, as they left work on September 7, despite the journalists presenting
press identity cards, Daily Observer publisher Kenneth Best
told me. Police claimed they were not aware journalists were exempt from the
curfew, Best said.
"We see these as deliberate actions to limit the role
of the media in the national discourse, under the guise of a state of
emergency," Kamara said in the letter.
The government has also arbitrarily closed the National
Chronicle. The independent newspaper was closed on August 14, a
few hours after a press conference where Information Minister Lewis Brown gave
a "last warning" to journalists about reporting critically during the
state of emergency, according to news reports.
Dozens of police officers, without a court warrant and
giving no official reason, used tear gas when they stormed the Chronicle's offices
in Monrovia, before sealing the premises, according to news reports and local journalists. The police beat three
journalists -- Emmanuel Mensah, Jah Johnson and Monica Samuel -- and detained
Mensah and technology employee Emmanuel Logan overnight, Chroniclepublisher
Philipbert Browne told me. Computers and other items seized during the raid
were later returned, Browne said.
On August 16, after a protest by PUL, the government
released a statement to justify its actions, citing "urgent national security concerns" and
a police investigation into articles the Chronicle published, which alluded to plans by a group of Liberians to form a new government.
The Chronicle claimed that the group, which it said had
international backing, mainly from the U.S. government, wants President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf to step aside over allegations of corruption and misrule.
Browne told me the paper had lined up a 10-part series, but published only
three parts before it was closed.
Government spokesman Isaac Jackson announced the Chronicle had
been suspended pending the police investigation, which would be "conducted
and concluded in the shortest possible time," according to news reports.
In a telephone conversation, Jackson told me the government decided to prevent
the Chroniclefrom publishing further reports that would
"incite" an already disenchanted populace frustrated with the Ebola
scourge.
Jackson said Browne's full cooperation was needed to provide
details about the alleged plans to form a new government. Browne, a former
consul-general to South Korea and one-time deputy minister of defense
under convicted ex-president Charles Taylor, may have access to
important details, Jackson said.
"By virtue of his positions, he is likely privy to
privileged information which is crucial to ongoing investigations,"
Jackson told me. "The newspaper will remain suspended until the
investigations are concluded."
Browne has presented himself for questioning daily at police
headquarters, yet theChronicle remains closed nearly a month later.
No charges have been filed, and no details have been released from the
investigation, Browne said.
"The first days I reported, the police kept repeating
the same questions, asking me for the numbers of the people in the reports. I
told them I would not give them," Browne told me. "Later, when I
report, the police would just leave me unattended from morning till
evening."
On September 8 Browne informed police he planned to spend a
week in the U.S. where he is due to attend a meeting about the Olympics on
September 15. But police told Browne, who is head of Liberia's National Olympic
Committee, that he cannot leave the country until after the investigation,
according to news reports.
Police in Liberia have a poor record for resolving
investigations into the press,
and cases of attacks on
journalists have gone uninvestigated, even when their aggressors -- at
times police
officers -- have been identified, according to CPJresearch.
The Chronicle's reports on a proposed
interim government, which the government stated was its reason for closing the
paper, have since been reported widely inLiberia and internationally.
It is not the first time the Chronicle has
been targeted and threatened by the authorities. The paper has been sued
over its reports accusing lawmakers and government officials,
including Sirleaf and her family, of corruption, abuse of office and criminal acts, according to media reports. The government denied the paper's accusations, news reports said.
The Publishers Association of Liberia has called on the
government to respect the rule of law and lift the ban on the Chronicle, which
it noted is a legally registered and accredited corporate body, or to pursue
legal action against the paper if necessary, according to news reports.
The harassment of the Chronicle and other
publications is tarnishing the country's image. Compared to many of its
neighbors, Liberia is supposed to have an enviable press freedom record. It has
a Freedom of Information law and officials are always quick to state that
Sirleaf signed the Declaration of Table Mountain, which aspires
to abolish "insult" laws and criminal defamation in Africa. Sirleaf is
also a recipientof the Friend of the Media in Africa award, presented
by The African Editors Forum.
As Liberia struggles to contain the health crisis, the
government should show tolerance, and partner with the media to encourage the
flow of information and debate.
Source: CPJ
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