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| Fatoumata N. Fofana, The author |
The Liberian media remain subject to regulation by Government, in spite of the constitutional provision calling for their protection. Articles 15A and B of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia do protect the freedoms of expression, of speech and of the press. This constitutional provision also underlines that “this right shall not be curtailed, restricted or enjoined by government save during an emergency declared in accordance with this Constitution.”
Regulatory Laws
However, Decree No. 46 of 1981, which created the Ministry of Information, empowers the Ministry, through its National Communications Bureau, to regulate journalists and journalism in Liberia. On an annual basis, this Bureau is responsible to license media entities before they are allowed to function in Liberia. Any entity which functions without due registration is held culpable for a misdemeanor of the first degree.
Mrs.
Elizabeth Hoff, Deputy Minister of Information for Technical Affairs,
confirmed that this measure was instituted by government prior to the
country’s 14-year old civil conflict. “Every media institution,
depending on what they run, is required to pay a license fee. If you are
running a newspaper, you are required to pay an annual regulatory fee
of US$100; radio and television stations are required to pay US$250 as
annual regulatory fee,” she said.
The
Ministry’s Communications Bureau also makes appropriate recommendations
for the suspension of the license of a journalist who is adjudged to
have violated the provisions of the Decree or regulations made under it.
The Bureau is vested with the important function of regulating the
importation, exportation, publication and distribution of books,
newspapers, and so forth, including the right of the Government to ban
any of these and to set and enforce journalistic standards in relation
to these activities.
As
Mr. Peter Quaqua, president of the Press Union of Liberia puts it:
“Even though these laws seem to be relaxed during this regime, we’ve
still continued to argue for these media-unfriendly laws to be erased
from the books.”
The FOI Law
In
October 2010, Liberia became the first West African country to pass a
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act which gives news-gatherers and the
general public unfettered access to public records. The objectives of
the Law include:
•
Removing restrictions on and establishing procedures for accessing
information in the hands of public or private authorities that perform
public functions;
•
Making the practices and procedures of public authorities available to
the public, facilitating the disclosure of information to the public at
reasonable cost;
•
And guaranteeing the right of every individual to access his or her
personal information held by private and public institutions.
Unfortunately,
the professed intents and purposes of this law are yet to come to
fruition. The Press Union of Liberia recently expressed grave
disappointment over the denial by the Criminal Court ‘A’ to provide
certain documents in its possession under the Freedom of Information Act
of Liberia. The Union said it was far beyond 60 days since it requested
the Court to provide copies of the species of evidence presented by
government’s lawyers in the case against three media entities that were
seized on allegation of broadcasting ‘hate messages.’
While
describing the Court’s denial as a bad example for the implementation
of the law, the Union urged the government to remove the misgivings that
the FOI was a mere publicity stunt. It may be recalled that on November
28, 2011, the PUL filed an FOI request to the Court to serve it copies
of the evidence received from government prosecutors. The Court
acknowledged receipt of the request on December 8 and indicated its
willingness “to produce the said evidence requested for…” but only after
the Union had gone public on the Court’s silence.
Who Controls the Liberian Media?
The
issue of control of the Liberian media has both political and economic
manifestations. Political control of the media goes as far back as the
days of the Liberian Age, the propaganda wheel of the True Whig Party
which ruled Liberia for over 100 years. While other independent
journalists and newspapers as a whole during the TWP era experienced
great persecution, the Liberian Age carried out the propaganda of the
ruling elite. Journalists working for independent newspapers as well as
those working at the Age who attempted to ink their independence -- via
some criticism of government -- risked punishment and humiliation up to
and including jail. Two major examples are the late Liberian press
legends Albert Porte (Publisher, The Crozierville Observer) and Stanton
Peabody (Editor, The Liberian Age), respectively.
The
contemporary political control of the Liberian media shows individuals –
many of them politicians and wannabe politicians – investing in print
and electronic media outlets under the guise of independence. This
scenario suggests that those with political ambitions establish their
own media outlets to have direct control over what comes out in the
media. The owners of such outlets, however, are no secret, which
essentially counters the perception of credibility they wish to
portray. Then again, some editors and reporters of such outlets have
complained of important stories being suppressed for the preferment of
other stories with little or no news magnitude, and that media managers
emerge “from meetings behind closed doors” only to suddenly change the
entire front page without explanation.
That’s
not all. Many Liberian media practitioners vehemently reject the idea
of independent media outlets endorsing political candidates during an
election campaign. It is an on-going debate between those who believe
it goes against professional ethics and others who believe that, though
it might be admissible, Liberian media consumers might not be “media
literate” enough to comprehend the implications of political
endorsements.
On
the economic front, however, the Liberian media remain strangulated.
Politicians (again) and other individuals with deep pockets are able to
control the media in very serious ways. They call some journalists to
meetings, and pay them to spin certain special-interest articles in the
newspaper or on the air. This “pay” is not an advertisement fee because
it goes directly into the pockets of such reporters and even publishers
to sing praises; not into the coffers of the media institutions they
work for. At best, this “pay” might be shared between the reporter and
his or her editor since, in fact, the editor decides the fate of the
story. It is locally referred to as “Kato”. Eventually, it trickles down
to anybody else who wants to publish anything in the news media and
reflects distinctly the grade of the individual and collective integrity
of journalists – the Liberian media as a whole.
The Harsh Fact
Many
reporters make less than US$100 per month as salary; and these are
people connecting the dots between the lowest, middle and highest
echelons of society. These are also people who need to carry themselves
in a very respectable manner. It is not all a money issue, however.
Indeed, journalists, too, need to put their integrity first. Yet it does
help when the journalist is able to focus on the job and not have to
worry about where his or her rent, children’s school fees and other
necessities are coming from.
It
is not clear if Liberia has any ombudsman, although the Press Union of
Liberia (PUL) claims to be one, albeit mainly in terms of grievances the
public may have against the media. The country has no public
broadcasting organizations. The Liberia Broadcasting System is a
government-owned state broadcaster. An act to make the Liberia
Broadcasting System a public broadcasting entity was never passed by
members of 52nd National Legislature of Liberia.
Challenges
At
least 90% of Liberian journalists come directly from high school and
these are aspiring, passionate, on-fire people in their late teens,
early 20s. They desire to make a difference in society. They are
inspired by the likes of the Late Stanton B. Peabody, the Late Albert
Porte, Mr. Kenneth Y. Best, and others who have blazed the trail and set
the standards. They then enter and find a rude awakening: their
education is put on hold and whatever education they get in the next
five years will be through a collection of two-day workshops around the
city.
They also find out that, with all the prominence that journalists
possess, in this environment, their salaries are not commensurate with
that kind of exposure. And this leads these young aspiring journalists
into finding alternative means to make money such as offering to do
special-interest stories and be paid special fees. This threatens the
integrity and morale of the profession because it snowballs into other
transgressions such as libel that could damage the now hard-earned
integrity of the media in Liberia.
Blogging & Citizen Journalism
Blogging
and citizen journalism are still new to Liberians. This is mainly
because the country didn’t have the required facilities. It was only in
2008 that Liberia started having competitive Internet services,
especially through the mobile telecommunications operators – using their
GPRS and Edge facilities. Other than that, the other Internet service
providers provided – and still do – very minimal bandwidth, yet costing a
fortune and only the higher echelons of the society could afford this.
Even some media houses couldn’t afford the Internet up to three years
ago.
The good news now is that, the Africa Coast Europe (ACE)
fiber-optic cable has landed in Monrovia (November 3rd) and, hopefully
by August 2012, the country should see a major technology boom with
faster, more reliable, and more affordable Internet connection,
especially via the mobile medium. That means more people getting
involved with the Internet, and more people in the digital media. The
importance of the digital infrastructure will definitely impact the
proliferation of bloggers in the Liberian society.
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