February 26

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DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018 11
Politics
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced,
where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is
made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to
oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor
property will be safe — Frederick Douglass
Decriminalise Libel
– MFWA urges Prez Weah
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
marked one month of
George Weah’s assumption
of office as
President of Liberia,
having secured 61.5%
of the presidential run-off votes
against then outgoing Vice President,
Joseph Boakai.
The peaceful conduct of the
polls, coupled with Vice President
Joseph Boakai’s gracious concession,
is another milestone in
Liberia’s post-war efforts at building
a democratic and tolerant society.
What is even more reassuring
is President Weah’s pledge at his
inauguration to govern by consensus
and ensure prosperity for all
Liberians by tackling corruption.
The Media Foundation for
West Africa congratulates
(MFWA) and its partner organisation
in Liberia, Centre for Media
Studies and Peace-building while
congratulating His Excellency
George Weah on his election and
assumption of power and wish
him success in his proposed anticorruption
crusade, said a crucial
ally in the president’s anti-corruption
crusade is the media and civil
society.
Fortunately, Liberia has a Right
to Information Law and its constitution
guarantees the right to freedom
of expression – two
powerful tools in the fight against
corruption.
However, the full exercise of
these rights has been undermined
by a flurry of criminal libel and
civil libel suits that have resulted in
excessively prohibitive judgments.
Journalists and media houses have
been at the receiving end of crippling
fines, closure or long custodial
sentences for publishing
information deemed uncomfortable.
One of these crippling fines
was seen in the Rodney Sieh case
of 2013. In what is arguably the
most infamous libel judgment in
West Africa, the Supreme Court in
Liberia, on August 20, 2013, sentenced
Sieh, the Managing Editor
of the FrontPage Africanewspaper,
to 5,000 years in prison. The
sentence followed Sieh’s failure to
pay an equally hefty fine of USD$
1.6 million in a civil suit for
defamation brought by then Minister
of Agriculture, Chris Toe.
The journalist was later pardoned
after he apologised as part of a
deal to end the case.
In July 2015, the publisher of
the Nation Times, Octavin
Williams was arrested and held in
pre-trial detention for eight days
after a criminal complaint by one
Tony Lawal, a construction mogul,
who sought US$4 million in damages
for an alleged defamatory article.
The journalist has made four
appearances in court so far.
On October 7, 2016, Philipbert
Browne, the publisher of
Liberia's Hot Pepper newspaper,
was arrested and jailed without
trial at the Monrovia Central
Prison on the orders of a Civil
Law Court. Brown’s imprisonment
for libel followed an article he
wrote which was based on an interview
with an alleged rape victim.
The alleged perpetrator of
the rape, lawmaker Prince Moye,
had filed a US$1.5 million libel
lawsuit against Browne together
with Jah Johnson, the editor
of Hot Pepper. Alfred Togbah, the
publisher of The People newspaper,
which first broke the rape
story, was also joined in the suit. .
As Philipbert Browne and Rodney
Sieh’s cases clearly illustrate,
judgments of even civil libel cases
have also been excessively punitive
in recent times. Crippling fines
and damages are often imposed,
and defaulting in payment often
leads to detentions. The New Democrat,
Analyst, the Independent
and the New Broom are
some of the media organisations
that have recently suffered excessive
punishments in civil libel
suits.
In November 2017, Tony
•President George Oppong Weah
Lawal again sued Joel Cholo
Brooks, the publisher of the
GNN Liberia online newspaper
for libel. The businessman is demanding
US$10 million in damages
in connection with a series of
investigative reports by Brooks in
which he alleged that the businessman
was involved in some dubious
road construction deals.
The harassment of media owners
and journalist with criminal
prosecutions and prohibitive fines
in civil cases has led to widespread
self-censorship and weakened the
media in Liberia. This situation
has seriously hampered the
media’s watchdog duties as well as
the ability of citizens to freely express
themselves.
Over the past few five years,
Liberia’s press freedom landscape
has consistently been rated as
“partly free” in the RSF Press
Freedom Index due to these press
freedom violations and the difficult
environment under which the
media works.
Before leaving office, President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attempted
to make some amends by taking
steps to get criminal libel scrapped
from the statutes. On July 20,
2017, the president put before
Parliament a bill to decriminalise
libel. The bill sought to amend the
following repressive provisions in
Liberia’s criminal code: Criminal
Libel against the President; Section
11.12 (on Sedition) and Section
11.14: Criminal Malevolence
of the Penal Law of Liberia.
Unfortunately, the House of
Representatives could not consider
the bill before it vacated in
October 2017.
It is a credit to Liberia that it
gave its citizens a legal basis to demand
accountability by adopting a
Right to Information law in 2010.
The country will be equipping itself
with a set of progressive
press freedom laws if it successfully
repeals criminal libel. Such a
prospect, will be a major boost to
press freedom in the country.
We therefore recommend to
President George Weah to use his
good offices to ensure the repeal
of the anti-free speech sections of
the Liberia Criminal code to give a
new lease of life to the country’s
media, thereby enhancing the capacity
of the media to support his
anti-corruption agenda and also
the country’s young democracy.
Credit: MFWA
Slow down on your write-ups – NPP MP to Amidu
BY KWAME ACHEAMPONG
THE NEW Patriotic Party
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Ayensuano, Mr Samuel Ayeh
Paye has urged Special Prosecutor
Mr Amidu to slow down on
his write-ups and commentaries.
According to the MP, it is important
that the former Attorney
General took time to prepare
and study the ropes of his new
office considering the huge public
expectation of him.
Mr Amidu, who has a penchant
for responding and opinionating
on national issues
through lengthy articles, has
promised to put a hold on his
writings as he takes the Special
Prosecutor job.
In his latest article however,
he urged people who believe
they have not stolen from the
State to feel free since he would
ensure their rights.
“There is no need for any citizen
to go into exile as some are
alleged to have done, or to contemplate
or fear my approval and
pending appointment as Special
Prosecutor, so long as that citizen
has not seriously violated
any law worth investigating or
prosecuting in the national interest
under my remit.
“The 1992 Constitution protects
every citizen from capricious
exercise of discretion and I
will ensure strict compliance
with the letter and spirit of the
1992 Constitution in protecting
the citizen’s rights and as well as
any abuse of the public purse.”
Speaking to Francis Abban
on the Morning Starr on Thursday,
the former deputy boss of
the Driver and Vehicle Licensing
Authority (DVLA) said he has
confidence in Mr Amidu.
“We wish Martin Amidu well
but he should try to hit slowly in
the writings and his pronouncements.
He may have to take his
time and study the office he is
appointed to work in. It is my
wish that Martin Amidu will execute
his job and do that very
well,” he said.
On his part, Tamale Central
MP Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said he
believes Mr Amidu would have
fallen sick if he had not written
his last epistle.
“I knew he will write it..if he
didn’t write it, maybe he would
have gotten hernia.”
•Samuel Ayeh Paye, MP for Ayensuano