By Peter Nkanga/West Africa
Representative
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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).
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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).
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.
Peter Nkanga, an
independent bilingual investigative journalist based in Abuja, Nigeria, is
CPJ's West Africa representative. Peter specializes in human rights and
advocacy reporting.
Source: www.cpj.org
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