Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent illegal closure of the privately-owned stations Star Radio and Radio Veritas. During the morning of March 15, heavily armed police officers under the command of Director of Police Paul Mulbah occupied the Star Radio compound in Monrovia and sealed its gate. Star Radio’s Internet-based news service was also interrupted. Meanwhile, police also sealed the compound housing Radio Veritas, which is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese.
Read CPJ’s protest letter to President Charles Taylor of Liberia. New York, March 15, 2000 — Citing public security concerns, the Liberian government shut down the privately owned Star Radio station and suspended Radio Veritas, a religious station owned by the Catholic Church. A statement from the office of President Charles Taylor defended the decision…
New York, February 22 — Police in Monrovia yesterday arrested four journalists from Liberia’s The News and charged them with espionage, apparently in reprisal for a February 21 story that challenged government spending on helicopter repairs, Christmas cards, and souvenirs. The page one story questioned the government’s allocation of US$50,000 for helicopter repairs, and drew…
For some delegates, just getting to the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) regional conference in Dakar, Senegal, was an impressive achievement. While his colleagues used more conventional modes of transportation, Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) president Frank Kposowa navigated his way out of the country by night in a hired motorized dugout canoe. The…
Liberian broadcast journalist Alex Redd became the focus of international attention late last year when he was kidnapped and tortured by state security forces for attempting to investigate and report on the murder of political opposition leader Samuel Dokie, his wife, and two family members. Upon release, Redd was arrested and tried for inciting the…