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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
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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 paper FrontPageAfrica, 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 Observer were 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, Chronicle
publisher 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 Chronicle from 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 the Chronicle 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 CPJ research.
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 in Liberia 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 recipient of 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.CPJ
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