The Inquirer (Monrovia)
C. Winnie Saywah
24 March 2008
Twelve media institutions in Monrovia have come under strong scrutiny for their coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process in Liberia for the period of two months.
Those institutions that had been closely monitored in January included The Inquirer, The Analyst, The New Democrat, The News, Daily Observer, and the Heritage; ELBC, Radio Veritas and Truth FM.
While for the month of February, two newspapers, The National Chronicle and the Public Agenda; and Star Radio were added to the monitoring process bringing the percentage of coverage given by the print media on the TRC hearings to 4.8% in terms of content space provided for news articles and the electronic was rated 12.1 % for airtime on the TRC related news and information for the two months.
The Liberia Media Center (LMC), in a 37-page report released last Thursday, announced that the electronic media topped the print in a 2-1 ratio for thoroughly balancing their news information gathered from the proceedings.
Giving a summary of his center's report, the LMC Executive Director, Lawrence Randall, praised the selected media institutions generally for staying above what he called the "fray" and using the language befitting the coverage of the process.
He said the findings are not a form of propelling undue competition amongst media institutions but intended to help them improve their performance in reporting on the TRC as a reconciling tool.
The report rated among many things the print media's failure to thoroughly make follow-ups and balance their news articles. The report said minimum efforts were made but only when it was related to big names or fame.
The summary of the report stated how the print media devoted little attention to the TRC hearings as it left the capital city; citing the Inquirer Newspaper, a daily paper, that reported once from Maryland County.
The findings also frowned on the New Democrat continuous publication of gruesome photos and called on the editorial department of the paper to strive to clearly delineate its news from its opinion pages.
It said that the New Democrat that has the best quality of newspaper devoted the most space and conducted a good number of follow-ups in its reports but in covering the Charles Taylor Trial and the TRC hearings that commenced at the same time, it was hard to tell when a story was news or opinion.
For the electronic, Radio Veritas was graded as being exceptional relating to its diversity in coverage pointing out that the Catholic-owned station has a clean sheet for the two months under review.
The report continued that the four radio stations under the LMC mirror produced roughly 39 thoroughly balanced articles against the print media's 29 which accounted for the eight newspapers.
The electronic media was recorded for encountering serious problems with meeting up with its broadcast schedules as ELBC and Truth FM failed to air 75-45 of their news bulletins respectively and Star Radio is reported of having faults with 22 of its broadcasts.
Meanwhile the LMC has made several recommendations to ensure the success of the TRC process. Among the recommendations the LMC is calling on the international donor community to provide the necessary technical and financial support to the TRC to continue its hearings and final report.
The center also recommended that the Liberian government fully play its role to the commission calling on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to make full her pledge by facing the TRC when requested to do so.
The Center then urged the commission to lead by example and admonish it to bring to public the true story through an internal probe on what was or is being used as a rumor that there was an intra fight amongst two commissioners if the Liberians and other partners must take the commissioners and their work seriously.
Though many media practitioners present tried to educate the LMC that reporting on the TRC process was not in the ordinary news reporting way wherein the accused would be contacted because that would side track the meaning of the entire process, the center said that there should be no way of reporting that should violate Articles 12 and 23 of the Press Union Code of Conduct.
The PUL Code of Conduct states, "Journalists should not publish or broadcast any report or write-up affecting the reputation of an individual or an organization without a chance to reply. That is unfair and should be avoided"
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