The_Open_Door_deel1

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The telecommunication relay station transmits the diplomatic
traffic between Washington and almost all U.S. embassies in sub-
Saharan Africa and vice versa, whereas the U.S. embassy in Monrovia
is known to be one of the most important C.I.A. stations
in Africa and the Middle East (after the political changes of
1979 in Iran). In the mid-1970 1 s there were reportedly some 500
people assigned to the U.S. embassy in Monrovia (52).
The country's radio and television are also facilities enjoyed
only by a limited group, the urban people, and notably the economic
well-to-do as far as television is concerned. The Government
in the late 195O's set up a radio broadcasting service, the
Extended Liberian Broadcasting Company (E.L.B.C.), and a television
broadcasting corporation in 1964 (E.L.T.V.). In the late
1970's, however, E.L.T.V. did not reach beyond Kakata and television
was completely an affair for Monrovians only. Both radio
and television provide programmes for and by the Americo-Liberian
elite. At the end of the 1970's the ministry responsible"for
radio .and television, the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs
and Tourism, was headed by one of the most important politicians
in the country, E. Reginald Townsend. After being nominated
National Chairman of the country's only political party,
the True Whig Party, he was succeeded as Minister by one of Pres-r
ident Tolbert's numerous relatives, his cousin Johnny A. McClain
(53). Consequently, both radio and television serve important political
goals: to transmit a positive image of the country's ruling
party in general and of President Tolbert in particular. Thus,
criticism does not generally rise above the surface.
Liberia is the base of two radio stations which can be heard beyond
the borders of the republic. In 1954 E.L.W.A. radio was established
("Eternal Love Winning Africa") by a religious organisation,
the Sudanese Mission, originating in the U.S.A. There are
daily broadcasts in a large number of African languages which can
be heard in most West African countries. Most programmes broadcast
by radio station E.L.W.A. concern the preaching of the Gospel.
A second U.S. radio station is the Voice of America (V.O.A.).
The V.O.A. transmitter, located in Careysburg, is powerful enough
to cover the entire African continent, the Middle East and the
southwestern Soviet Union (54). The programmes broadcast serve
the (political) interests of its owner, the U.S. Government. It
should be noted that the ground on which the V.O.A. transmitter
was constructed in Careysburg is leased by the Government of the
U.S.A. for an extremely low rental which was used to compensate
the people who had to be evacuated because of the construction
of the buildings etc (55).