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Liberia: Johnson-Sirleaf Must Testify At TRC, Says Media Center
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
25 March 2008
Posted to the web 25 March 2008
Monrovia
The Liberia Media Center (LMC) has called on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to honor her pledge to testify at the Truth and Reconciliation public hearing whenever she is requested to do so.
President Johnson-Sirleaf at the launch of the TRC public hearing last January pledged to face the TRC when she is asked to do so, but quite recently, the president told the nation that she would rather provide her experiences in an autobiography.
LMC Executive Director Lawrence Randall said the TRC process should receive all required support to ensure its ultimate fulfillment because it is the surest way to achieve genuine reconciliation, sustainable peace and mutual coexistence, adding "the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf should seize the moment as pledged in the past to face the TRC when asked to do so."
"This, in our view, will lend further credibility to the process, provide the necessary momentum for its finalization and improve public perception of the TRC Process," Mr. Randall asserted at the official launch of the preliminary findings of the media monitoring of print and broadcast media by his organization covering January and February 2008.
Mr. Randall also called on the TRC to probe news reports of fighting between two Commissioners during public hearings in River Gee County because it is important for the Commission to lead by example.
However, TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier has already dismissed reports of intra-fighting within the commission and noted that at one point voices were raised in the commission room during deliberations in Fish Town, River Gee County, but there were no fist fight.
Meanwhile, in a thirty-seven page report released Thursday, the Center said overall, the media should be commended for generally staying above the fray in the conduct of their work, and stated that most of the languages used in the various reports reflected the language of the TRC.
The Center said comparatively, the broadcast sector outperformed the print media by ensuring that news and information were thoroughly balanced in a 2-1 ratio.
Mr. Randall, quoting the findings said some of the reports from both the print and broadcast media violated Articles 12 and 23 of the Press Union of Liberia Code of Conduct. Article 23 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".
"Most of those accused during public hearings were not contacted for reaction, while some of the accused voluntarily reacted, but their responses to the allegations received little prominence compared to when the story was first told. Journalists in very rare instances utilize information regarding the mandate, structure, functions and general legal framework of the Commission in providing context to testimony, emerging developments and stories," the LMC Executive Director noted.
He said there were very minimum follow-ups on stories from the hearings and hailed media efforts to provide lengthy investigation into allegation linking famed musician and current Executive Mansion Aide, Sundaygar Dearboy to atrocities allegedly committed during the war. But the Center said it was alarmed by the fact that the investigation was facilitated by the TRC.
The Center has asked the Commission to avoid being seen as facilitating the practice of investigative journalism. "Investigative reporting should be demand driven and supported by media institutions themselves so as not to compromise the integrity of their investigation," Mr. Randall noted.
While congratulating the New Democrat for devoting the most space and conducting follow-ups on a number of their reports and the quality of their newspaper, it encouraged the paper to clearly delineate its news from its opinion pages.
"In covering the Charles Taylor Trial and TRC, it is hard to tell when a story is news or opinion. News stories are often linked to feature pages and do sometimes take the form of opinions, with a visible slant seen in some of its coverage," Mr. Randall observed.
He frowned on the paper's consistent publication of gruesome pictures and said the New Democrat published twice as much gruesome pictures compared to all newspapers combined.
Mr. Randall said the Center acknowledged strides by the Daily Observer, The News, The Heritage and The Inquirer in their coverage of the TRC but said they needed to improve their contents and provide multiple perspectives to their reports.
He lauded the Catholic run Radio Veritas for its exceptional coverage of the hearings, saying the station devoted more airtime on aggregate and recorded more diversity numbers.
Mr. Randall also commended Star Radio for its February coverage and has encouraged ELBC and Truth FM to review their broadcast schedule as they failed to air 75 and 45 of their news bulletins respectively.
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The project is funded with support from UNESCO Paris and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).
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