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Liberian
Journalist raises concern over transitional media
committee
Saturday,
December 03, 2005
Philadelphia-11/30/05:
A Liberian journalist and community activist,
Sam Togba Slewion, says the transitional committees
appointed by the President-elect, Mrs. Ellen Sirleaf,
manifest a rebirth of many of the architects of
failed and repressive government policies in
Liberia, which did not adequately address the needs of
the Liberian people over many years.
Mr.
Slewion said while it is understandable that politics
is about personal interest, the make-up of any
post-war government in Liberia must not only supercede political
patronage and cronyism,
but also reflect the desire of President-elect
Sirleaf to institute policy reform, and serve as
the fulcrum to contribute to the bridging
of the ethnic divide in the country.
The former Secretary General of the Press Union
of Liberia (PUL) made the observation last
Wednesday when he served as a panelist at a forum
organized by the African Studies Department of the
University of Pennsylvania under the theme:
"Contested Elections and Democracy: Examples from
Liberia, Ethiopia, Tanzania/Zanzibar and the Arab
World. Other speakers at the forum included Mr. Paul
Kaiser, Director of the African Studies Center,
Professor Pietro Toggia of Kutztown University and
Bassam Haddad, a community activist from the
Arab community and student of the St. Joseph
University.
Mr. Slewion said some of the individuals serving on
the Transitional Media Committee, which term of
reference include policy formation, should be of
concern to the Liberian media, especially the
independent press because these individuals either
participated in the crafting or
implementation of media policies in the country,
including the draconian Communications Act,
which was used by past regimes, including
the late Samuel Doe Government, to muzzle and
suppress the Liberian media.
"The
kind of media policy to be developed by the Sirleaf
Government with the involvement of these
actors leaves room for apprehension, and the
president-elect needs to either go
back to the drawing board to reconfigurate the
committee or she must thoroughly review its reports
before final endorsement is given to the policy
document to ensure that the rights of
the Liberian people to free speech and freedom of the
press is not curtailed during her Administration,
" he quipped.
Commenting on the just-ended elections in Liberia, the
former Executive of the Association of Liberian
Journalists in Americas (ALJA), said while the protest
failed by Ambassador George Weah against the elections
results tend to dampen the hope of the Liberian people
after such a peaceful elections, he supports the views
of the UN and other international bodies for the
protest to be investigated to its legal and logical
conclusion not purposely to taint the presidency of
Mrs. Sirleaf, but to expose any systemic flaws within
the Liberian electoral system.
He said this was necessary because there seem to
be a correlation between allegation of fraud in
post-elections and war in Liberia. He recounted that
there was a war in 1989 following the 1985 elections, which the opposition
characterized as fraudulent.
We saw another war in 2000 after the 1997
elections, which elected Charles Taylor as
President," he observed.
However, he noted that the fear of the Liberian people
is allayed by the decision of the
Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)
to pursue legal means to resolve their
protest and the public statement by the party to
accept the decision of the Supreme Court as the final
arbiter of rule and law. " The pursue of the legal
channel is a positive dimension of the post-elections
drama in Liberia unlike the previous elections in 1985
and 1997 when the opposition failed to use the legal
channel to resolve their grievances," he added.
"We can only hope that the CDC will live up
to its words, if the protest reaches the Supreme Court
and a final decision is made, to allow the
Liberian people to move on with the task of
reconstructing their individual lives and their
country as well as contribute to strenghtening
of our fragile democracy, " he told the
audience comprising University students and
professors.
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