…in the context of Liberia’s weak history of freedom expression under a century of one-party rule and the number of pressing challenges confronting the government, the strong focus of the government on highlighting the shortcomings of the independent Liberian press will likely beg the question of whether such statements are motivated by a genuine desire to see constructive reform or to stifle criticism.
The star of Liberia’s Nobel Peace Prize winning President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appears to have weathered the Ebola crisis relatively intact. Despite receiving negative press from a quarantine of Monrovia’s most notorious slum last year at the height of the Ebola crisis and its violent enforcement by security officials, resulting in the death of a 15 year-old boy, Liberia received significantly amounts of aid from the international community (primarily the US) and became the first of the three major Ebola affected countries to rid itself of the virus.
The medical success seems set to pay additional development dividends. The US government’s Millenium Challenge Corporation, which provides grants for partners that meet good governance criteria, recently announced a $256 million USD agreement with the government of Liberia. Following a meeting with Angela Merkel in Germany, President Sirleaf is currently in New York, where on the 16th of September the Liberian government participated in the US–Liberia Trade and Investment Forum and the President is poised to address the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.
However, all is not a rosy on the Liberian domestic front. In April, irate motorcyclists burned down a police station just outside of Monrovia, indicating that Liberia’s government may face challenges assuming full responsibility for the security sector when the United Nations Mission in Liberia transitions this responsibility, as is currently slated to happen next year.
Perhaps most troubingly for those looking to external checks to ensure transparency in Liberia, is the government’s rocky relationship with the media. In 2013, Rodney Sieh, publisher of Front Page Africa, the Liberian periodical most critical of the government was jailed for failing to pay libel damages in excess of $1 million USD. Henry Costa, a notable radio personality pushing for government reform has also been twice arrested and now broadcasts from Philadelphia in the United States.
The Ministry of Information is led by Lewis Brown, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Charles Taylor, since convicted of warmongering in Sierra Leone. In recent months, the Ministry has issued a veritable litany of material critical of the country’s struggling media houses.
A July article from the Liberian News Agency highlighted the Deputy Minister of Information’s criticisms of ‘unethical’ journalism in the country without providing specifics. Also, in July, a Ministry of Information press release criticised the ‘faceless snare campaign’ in an article co-written by Front Page’s News Desk Chief and a journalism graduate student from the US that quoted a student critical of President Sirleaf without providing a name. Proving that seemingly no transgression of the Liberian Press is too minor to point out, an August Ministry of Information press release was entitled, “GOL Expresses Disappointment in New Democrat’s Caption.”
These interventions seem to extend to the President herself. A recent Front Page article reported that the camera of one of its journalists was seized and pictures of the President forcibly deleted upon orders she gave to her security team.
As Jefferson Krua, editor of the online Liberian media house, the Bush Chicken noted in an Op-Ed criticising a ‘rant’ by Minister Brown at a press conference, the capacity of Liberian media is indeed low (a recent article describing the death of Liberian President Samuel Doe in 1990 during the country’s civil war noted that he died during a ‘gorilla rebellion’). Many news items in the local dailies are paid for by external entities seeking promotion of their work, violating fundamental journalistic tenants.
However, in the context of Liberia’s weak history of freedom expression under a century of one-party rule and the number of pressing challenges confronting the government, the strong focus of the government on highlighting the shortcomings of the independent Liberian press will likely beg the question of whether such statements are motivated by a genuine desire to see constructive reform or to stifle criticism.
Brooks Marmon is an American aid worker in Liberia writing in his personal capacity. He tweets @AfricaInDC.
