Just freed from jail: Sirleaf at the hight of her advocacy for rights in Liberia
The future belongs
to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the
resourcefulness, and we have the strength … Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Just as last month came to an end two significant concerns
popped up in post war Liberia! Depending on which one you want to take first,
all 25,000 students sitting the nation’s most prestigious university entrance exam fail to make a passing mark; it
was perhaps the biggest front-page grabber since the Charles Taylor conviction,
underscoring Liberia’s rotten education system ( both teachers and students in
the country are indiscipline, the government alone cannot take the blame for
this one), and there was the incarceration of Frontpage Africa’s editor, Rodney
Sieh on woozy libel charges wrapped up in political undertones, according the
Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ). Press freedom in Liberia Is under
attack, and President Sirleaf is stoking the flames!
When President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signed the Table Mountain
Declaration last year, she made headlines around the world because the intent
of the avowal was meant to stop insults and criminal charges against the media,
and Sirleaf was hailed as a president who was sensitive to Liberia’s press
freedom privileges given the country myriad history as far as the harassment of
the fourth estate is concerned in the West African country. Liberian
journalists, who have suffered persecution and continue to, even today, from the
powers that be at least thought a new era, were upon them! She signed that
agreement in 2012, but leading up to the jailing of Rodney Sieh reports out of
Liberia say President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Liberian press have been at
loggerheads, a love hate relationship, if you want to call it that.
President Sirleaf, not happy that the Liberian press were
vigorously reporting fraud about her family and her administration now wants to
turn back the gains, says Liberian opposition political Liberty Party. Let’s
not forget that Sirleaf, a onetime darling of press during the William Tolbert and
Samuel Doe administrations of which she was a staunch critic, it seems, say
critics now resent the scrutiny to which she has been subjected, sirleafès intolerance has been on display, even refering to her critics as the NOISY MINORITY!
The
Liberian president is on record advocating that the media be sued in the courts
for libel. It must not be forgotten that President Sirleaf successfully sued
the New Broom and the New Democrat newspapers. The New Democrat
was lucky and was able to settle out of court, but not the New Broom that President Sirleaf sued for 5million United States
dollars. 5million United States Dollars in little underprivileged Liberia
against a newspaper that is hardly worth 10thousand dollars----that was sudden death!
The paper was shut down, victory declared!
“There are responsibilities that go with freedom of the
press, but the president in her state of the union message (in 2010) said that
she was going to take action against journalists who accuse her officials falsely
and who accuse her institutions falsely…she just said that about two weeks ago,
and right after that we see a bandwagon of libel suits coming out with jurors
handing out unanimous decisions in libel cases,” Tom Kamara, the late editor and celebrated
publisher of the New Democrat said in
revulsion of the Liberian President and her administration new tactics to
silence dissent in Liberia!
Today it would be inconceivable for any Liberian security
officers or officials operating under the orders of their bosses to lawlessly
close down or burn newspaper offices, as was the case under previous Liberian administrations,
the courts now serve that purpose under the guise of the law while Sirleaf is in power!
Hence, the intolerance and hostility currently being exhibited
by President Sirleaf and her administration has taken ordinary Liberians by
surprise. Under Sirleaf, nepotism is being resuscitated within the Liberian
government, and as of this writing, three of her sons still currently occupied senior
government positions in the banking, oil and security apparatus. Calls by the
civic society and the press to have the president removed her sons form those
public positions has infuriated the Noble Peace Prize laureate, which some say
has heightened her antipathy towards the Liberian media and her critics.
Just few months ago, her chief body guard threatened the Liberia
media when he said: Any press member that surpasses his/her responsibility to
get involved in presidential intelligence; trust me, we will restrict
you," Warwick said. "Be careful, because you have your pen and we
have our guns. And if you incriminate the character or integrity of Liberians
like myself, we will come after you. ... The EPS (Executive protection Service)
has the right to arrest you without warrant!
But just as the Liberian media were showing their
displeasure at what was clearly an unacceptable remark from Sirleaf security
chief and did issue news blockade against the Executive Mansion (Liberian Presidency),
Sirleaf is on record to have said: I DON’T CARE! They can demonstrate all they
want even for a whole year, I am enjoying this benign moment… appeals from
international bodies including WAJA, the West Africa Journalist Asociation and well-meaning Liberians to have the president withdraw
those comments and removed Mr. Othello Warwick from his senior government
position failed. The Liberian president neither rescinded her remarks nor was Mr.
Warwick removed!
The PUL president Peter Quaqua appalled by Sirleaf silence
on these concerns: mounting abuse, assaults and intimidation by public
officials against journalists, said "She continues to remain silent on (these
issues and) that has questioned her promise for democracy through press freedom”.
He said further, "Silence means consent."
Not long ago though,
it can also be recalled that the Liberian National Police Inspector General Col.
Chris Massaquoi also physically
assaulted a journalist on the grounds of the Temple of Justice, home to the Liberian
Supreme Court. President Sirleaf neither censored him nor did she make any
public statement to reprimand her police chief, a very regrettable situation
given that the issue was well reported and publicized and the PUL complained
about the despicable treatment, Massaquoi reacted, because, the journalist took his
picture and "the camera light flash in my face!"
Anyways, the current case emanating from former Agriculture
Minister Chris Toe and a 1.5million label against Liberia’s leading newspaper
and online magazine pundits believe is an attempt to silence dissent in Liberia.
Sirleaf and her friends’ want to silence the press and Frontpage Africa and
Rodney Sieh, and nothing cannot be further from the truth!
For example take Matilda Parker as a development, a current
government official and close friend to President Sirleaf and managing director
of the powerful Port Authority, who is also suing the FPA for 1million USD,
after the paper reported that she lied to the Liberian Anti-corruption (LACC) Commission
on her asset declaration forms, displeased about the FPA reports she is suing
about a reader comment which she claimed disrespected her. Sadly, while the FPA
has been busy investigating corruption cases, nepotism in the Liberian government
which the president is said to be encouraging, dismissed government officials
are left unprosecuted by the Liberian courts, and where the preponderance of
evidence are there to convict, the Liberian court system ranked as one of the
most corrupt in the world (with jurors accepting bribes in open day light) has found reasons to acquit these officials and individuals! Irony or
what …the same court system that cannot indict or persecute corrupt officials is punishing a
newspaper and its editor for reporting on corruption in the country!
Corruption in government is at all-time high, it is on
everyone lips in the country. Corruption is a major reason Liberia went to war,
the mismanagement of resources by the government which left hurt feelings of marginalization as far as the
distribution of wealth is concerned is back on the block, the Liberian press has been relentless and is reporting on
corruption and mismanagement in govt, but the patriots of yesterday who were once ordinary citizens and
who now hold state power are furious that the media --- on whose backs they made their
name and rode to power is looking into their every lives, actions and deeds as they abused the peoples
trust!
"Experience hath (shown), that even under the best forms of
government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted
it into tyranny, " said Thomas Jefferson.
The struggle for press freedom will
continue even after Sirleaf leaves power in Liberia. But make no mistake, if
those who are entrusted with power---the people’s business--- think they will
muzzle and silent the press by using the courts, it’s a battle the Liberian media must welcome and be prepared to fight. Editor Rodney Sieh refusal to apoligize, as mr. Chris Toe is demanding must be celebrated,
because as Sirleaf rightly said and we must agree: The future belongs to us,
because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the
resourcefulness, and we have the strength … the Liberian media must not be
intimated!
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