Liberia

Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its dismay at the environment in which journalists have to operate in Libya. They fear for their safety, their integrity, and increasingly for their lives. Journalists continue to be exposed to intimidation, abduction, arbitrary arrest and physical violence without any sign that the Libyan authorities are taking any measures to curb these abuses. The media...

A mayor who was named and shamed in a free expression report by the Centre for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) is threatening to sue the organisation for libel. CEMESP's annual report, "Strengthening Freedom to Further Democracy in Liberia: Attacks on Freedom of Expression 2010", released last week, singled out Monrovia Mayor Mary Broh as the only high government official that unleashed...

The 6th Judicial Circuit Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice in Liberia has denied a motion for retrial filed by legal counsellors representing the Frontpage Africa newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Rodney Sieh, in a US$2 million libel suit filed by former agriculture minister Chris Toe. In his final ruling on February 23, Judge Yussif Kaba said the court is of the opinion that the jury...

The House of Representatives of Liberia has passed into law the Liberia Freedom of Information Law, according to the Monrovia-based Centre for Media Studies and Peace Building (CMSPB). The House, during its regular plenary session held on July 22, unanimously voted to pass the FOI law which has been in the Legislative room for over two years. The passage of the law by members of the House of...

A Liberian journalist who testified against ex-President Charles Taylor should not be forced to reveal a confidential source, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. The journalist, Hassan Bility, testified on January 14 about a 1997 reporting trip to Sierra Leone in which he documented alleged ties between Liberian government troops and Sierra Leonean rebels. Liberia's ex-President Charles...

Two Liberian journalists working for the New Democrat newspaper were arrested and detained for several hours on June 16 by officers of the Liberia National Police in Monrovia. According to the police, news editor Othello Garblah and staff writer Festus Porque were arrested at the request of the Monrovia Transit Authority for "unprofessional photography." The two journalists had gone to the...

Officers of the Liberia National Police assigned to the provincial city of Tubmanburg in Liberia's Bomi county on Saturday last flogged and briefly detained a journalist in capital Monrovia. Edwin Clarke of Truth FM Radio, who had gone to Tubmanburg to follow up on a news story regarding a stolen child, was ordered beaten by the commander of the Women and Child Protection unit of the Liberian...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed the call of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) for journalists in the country to stand in solidarity with six colleagues and a newspaper accused of libel by Ambrose Nmah, the general manager of a media group. Nmah, who also presents a news programme on the radio, is suing the journalists after they published a statement calling on the PUL...

Liberian information minister Laurence Bropleh continues to make a stalwart but surprising defence of his government’s targeting of the Monrovia Independent newspaper for publishing an obscene photograph of another cabinet minister. Disgraced Minister of Presidential Affairs Willis Knuckles tendered his resignation on February 25 after a picture of him in a sex act with two young girls surfaced on...