IN ATTEMPTS TO CONTAIN EBOLA, LIBERIA CENSORS ITS PRESS

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

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 

EMERGENCY EBOLA RESEARCH FUNDING EDGES CLOSER

A funding call for research to inform the management of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed more than 2,000 people, closed to applications today (8 September).

The emergency research funding call was announced last month (21 August), giving expert teams from around the world three weeks to submit proposals. The aim is to produce robust evidence to contribute to the outbreak response, and draw lessons for future outbreaks.

The funding comes from a £6.5 million (US$10.5 million) initiative, Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC), which was launched last year by the UK Department for International Development and medical charity the Wellcome Trust. The initiative supports research collaborations between public health researchers and humanitarian agencies responding to disasters.

“We were monitoring the situation over the summer and felt that the increasing scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the clear and growing need for better understanding and evidence to inform the international humanitarian response to it, merited the creation of a unique and urgent call for proposals,” says Jess Camburn, director of Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA), the organisation that manages the R2HC programme.

Initial proposals will be reviewed this week and selected research teams will be invited to submit more detailed proposals. Funding should be available by the beginning of October, says Camburn.

The R2HC scheme usually agrees to fund prospective research, releasing funds if the situation set out in a funding proposal arises during a crisis.

Carrie Teicher, a surgical epidemiologist working for medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, and colleagues were awarded £107,566 (around US$175,000) in the first round to look at how serious injuries are managed following an earthquake. The team will receive the funding should such a crisis occur during the grant’s two-year lifetime.

The other group that was awarded a grant is a team from the University of Colorado, in the United States, in collaboration with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization in Nepal. They have been awarded £79,834 (around US$129,000) to evaluate a community-based intervention to mitigate mental health impacts of disasters in Haiti or Nepal.

A total of US$3.1 million was awarded from R2HC’s first call. The second call closed on 10 July and funded projects are due to be announced early next year.

“Operations research to improve public health and medical responses in the humanitarian sector is a much needed field that needs to be expanded and better funded. The R2HC grant mechanism is one of the few that exist that enables such research that could have direct effects upon millions,” says Teicher.

It is unclear how much of the US$10.5 million R2HC will be made available for the emergency Ebola research.

trust 

MIXED BAG OF FORTUNES FOR SADC

The Southern Africa region has continued on a positive economic growth path with significant differences in growth rates among countries in the region. 

Mozambique, Zambia and Angola registered the fastest growth rates, exceeding the 7 percent growth rate target of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), supported by positive performance of the mining sectors and strong public expenditure, according to a recent African Development Bank (AfDB) report.

The report titled “Southern Africa Review Quarterly and Analysis” says that officials in Zimbabwe also predict a significant acceleration of growth (from 3.7 percent in 2013 to 6.1 percent in 2014) premised on the successful implementation of its Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM-ASSET) and the completion of on-going institutional and structural reforms encompassing the mining sector.

“However, there are significant negative pressures to growth in Zimbabwe arising from liquidity constraints, weak aggregate demand and infrastructure bottlenecks,” states the report.

In Malawi, the report says, growth is expected to accelerate to 6 percent in 2014, up from an estimated 5 percent in 2013, benefiting from a good tobacco harvest.

However, the continued suspension of budget support following the exposure of government officials’ misuse of public funds and the suspension of uranium mining activities due to low global ore prices present downward risks for Malawi.

AfDF says the Namibian economy is growing at 5.3 percent, reflecting a mild acceleration of growth relative to the fourth quarter of 2013, driven by increased mining and construction activities.

In Lesotho, the report says the 2014 first quarter growth is expected to be as high as that observed in the last quarter of 2013 (about 5 percent), given accelerated growth in the diamond mining, telecommunications and trade sectors.

Growth in Mauritius is accelerating but remains moderate (3.7 percent in 2014) in tandem with the recovery trend in its major economic partner, Europe.

Growth is decelerating in South Africa, where persistent structural constraints to growth, including the labour unrest and the interest rate hike implemented to ease exchange rate pressures, have dampened growth.

Developments in South Africa, AfDB noted, are expected to negatively affect Swaziland’s growth outlook. Inflation was moderate across the board in the first quarter of 2014, supported by easing exchange rate pressures, moderate external prices and weak domestic demand.

All countries except Malawi reported single-digit inflation, four meeting the SADC convergence target of less than 5 percent and one (Zimbabwe) registering a deflation rate of -0.91 percent in March 2014.

There were price pressures arising from rising fuel prices, increasing public wages and seasonal food shortages in a number of countries including Mauritius and Zambia.

Not all countries have reported first-quarter data on external balance, fiscal balance and debt.

The report says early indications suggest that most countries met the SADC convergence targets in the first quarter of 2014.

“However, a deterioration of the external position was observed in about half of the countries due to large imports of capital equipment and manufactured goods (Mozambique and South Africa), slow growth in the economies of major trading partners and sources of capital (Mauritius) and lower export revenues from mining (Angola, Zambia and Malawi),” says the report.

In Malawi, notes the report, the suspension of budget support also weighed in. Fiscal deficits widened in the majority of countries due to expansionary fiscal policies in Angola, Mauritius, Mozambique and Swaziland, revenue constraints arising from decelerating economic activity in Zimbabwe; and from the suspension of budget support in Malawi.

Nevertheless, the report says, the fiscal position of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countries is generally improving as the countries pursue fiscal consolidation (Botswana, Lesotho, and Namibia) and improve domestic resource mobilisation (Swaziland and Namibia) while also benefiting from SACU revenue inflows in the first quarter of 2014.

“Countries stayed within the SADC convergence target on debt, although debt levels are increasing in a number of countries including Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, to fund fiscal deficits.

“This performance has affected the level of international reserves, which decreased in Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia though for Angola stayed within the SADC convergence target of six months of import cover,” say the report.

The report says the region’s 2014 outlook is positive overall. Average growth is expected to rebound to 4.9 percent in 2014, up from the 4.3 percent average growth rate estimated for 2013. Average inflation should drop to about 6 percent, following significant disinflation in Malawi.

At least four countries expect to post a positive current account balance in 2014, compared to only one country at the end of 2013. Seven countries are expected to have increased their international reserves to at least four months of import cover by the end of 2014, compared to four countries in 2013, although the majority will still fall short of the SADC convergence target.  

However, the AFDB report says, growth is partially driven by expansionary fiscal policy measures that will negatively affect the fiscal balance and debt levels in a number of countries.

The region’s economic landscape for 2014 will be affected by a number of factors, including on-going institutional and structural reforms, as well as national elections, in some countries. Elections are expected to worsen the fiscal positions of Mozambique and Malawi, increase inflation risk in Malawi and increase uncertainty with respect to capital and investment inflow in Malawi.

Mozambique holds its elections in October while Malawi held its polls in May.

That said, the reports observe, important institutional and structural reforms are on-going in line with the development aspirations of member countries.

In the first quarter of 2014, Angola launched its ambitious electricity sector reform programme.

Malawi registered significant progress in the implementation of the public finance management reforms embedded in the Extraordinary Performance Assessment Framework.

Zambia reformed legislation in an attempt to improve the business climate; while in Zimbabwe, new foreign currencies were added to the multicurrency basket to facilitate trade and investment.

The report says in order to strengthen and sustain the positive growth trend, SADC member countries should pay particular attention to the issues including sustainable management of revenues from extractive industries and economic diversification in resource-rich countries; building resilience to external economic shocks in globally integrated economies, through economic diversification and diversification of target markets.

They further need to enhance capital budget absorption capacities to maximise benefits from expansionary fiscal policies; and public finance management reforms to reduce imbalances in budget allocations, improve domestic resource mobilisation and enhance safeguards.

Southern Times