There is no gainsaying that the Sirleaf Administration honors freedom of speech and of the press as guaranteed by the Constitution of Liberia. But it is doing so with strings attached - keen on the exercise of the responsibility attached to these constitutional guarantees. Now the responsibility clause, or how the security agencies of government conceptualize it, is putting the government on collision course with the Media.
It was The New Broom newspaper a couple of months ago; now, it is The Plain Truth newspaper, whose publisher, Cyrenius Cephus, is currently in government's claws at the Monrovia Central Prison, known simply as "South Beach". The Analyst, reports.
The government of Liberia has finally detained journalist Cyrenius Cephus at the Monrovia Central Prison on multiple charges in relation to the story his paper published recently.
The government is reportedly holding him at the prison together with the manager of Seamarco, Mr. Michael Mankine, the commercial printing press that prints The Plain Truth. It is not clear whether the printer is detained on the same charges as The Plain Truth's publisher.
Detention and Charges
According to Cehpus, who spoke with The Analyst minutes after government security agents allegedly picked him up and committed him to prison at about 7:19 yesterday evening, the government is holding him on charges of libel against the President of Liberia, sedition, and malevolence.
"All three charges are serious; they carry heavy sentences. He needs a good lawyer, if the case ever goes to court; otherwise, he will get a long term jail sentence," said a legal practitioner who preferred not to be named.
The Analyst was unable to confirm its cell phone conversation with the relevant government agencies, but observers say the events that followed the reported detention at the Monrovia Central Prison foreboded that Cephus could be running into a bigger trouble.
The Plain Truth reported last week that the government of Liberia was supplying arms and ammunition to an unknown insurgence group in neighboring Guinea. The paper alleged that the group is seeking to overthrow the military junta of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara.
The government refuted and described the allegation as "beyond human imagination". It said besides being at the forefront of efforts to resolve the Guinean leadership crisis by encouraging the junta leaders to conduct early democratic elections, Liberia was under UN arms embargo and could barely afford arms to defend itself against internal and external aggression.
Notwithstanding the denial, the government is holding The Plain Truth publisher personally for the contents of the story.
The government has since been adamant on tracing the story to its roots because it threatens the security and the friendly and brotherly relations between Liberia and Guinea.
Cephus was first "invited" by the Ministry of Justice for a discussion during which the government denied the allegation of arms support to Guinean counterinsurgent group seeking to overthrow the junta.
After the government sought in vain to get the assistance of The Plain Truth publisher in obtaining the source of the story, it mandated him to report to the National Security Agency (NSA) for further discussion on the issue. Cephus, on ethical ground, refused to divulge any information other than that already published.
When Cephus reported to the NSA, repeated the right to protect the source of his story, and challenged investigators to waive him the benefit of their failure to prove that the story was false, the NSA responded by confining him to a cell overnight, only to release him hours later. The Analyst is not privy to the incidents that led to his release, but hours after his release, Cephus released a press statement detailing what transpired during brief detention.
It is not clear whether it was the press statement that angered government security agents to re-arrest, charge, and throw him behind bars at the Central Prison; but already, his detention has sparked heated debate amongst Liberians who had already taken sides.
Public Debate
The detention of journalist Cephus has thrown Liberians into a spate of another debate about rights and responsibility vis-à-vis the freedom of speech and press. According to one group, The Plain Truth publisher was under no obligation to disclose the source of his information, which he was privileged to obtain under trust and confidence.
"It's like a lawyer-client relationship. In journalism, it's unethical and unprofessional to disclose the source of your information. The government knows this; the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism knows this. So why are they behind Cephus to violate his professional ethics?" said wondered Tumi Bleedie of Slipway in Monrovia.
Bleedie, who claimed have, himself, been a journalist in the mid-1970s before entering the accounting field, said all the government needed to do was to launch a diplomatic and security effort aimed at working with the Guineans to establish safety nets.
These safety nets will generate confidence on both sides and nip in the bud any tension that may be building up on account of the report or on account of any suspicion that may have given hints to the story," he said. He then added that chasing and detaining Cephus in Monrovia would not help. "Rather, it will heighten suspicion in Guinea whose government is already paranoid and feeling cornered by ECOWAS, the UN, and MRU."
Matthews J. Swary of Harbel, Firestone, agreed. "Cephus is just a messenger. You don't shoot the messenger if you do not like the message; you go for the one who sent the message. While it is difficult to stomach the idea that the Liberia government would actually support dissident group at this critical time in our country, it should not mean that it should dwell on Cephus and let the opportunity to confront its enemies slip by. It must find them; Cephus and his paper have indicated the way. They have shown the smoke, indicating that there is a fire. Now you can't force them to find the fire."
Swary said by pursuing Cephus to take responsibility for the story, the government was creating an unnecessary circus and soiling its long-held record of honoring press freedom. But not everyone agree that Cehpus was a messenger or an innocent publisher who should not be held as reportedly charged by government.
"He deliberately published story that accused the President of Liberia of supporting dissidents in Guinea. Whatever the story was published to achieve is not clear. But already, it has created suspicion between the two countries, which were cooperating to improve conditions inside Guinea after the junta takeover," said Moses W. Jewelly.
Jewelly, who claimed he has relatives in Macenta in Guinea, said as the result of the story, Liberians living in that Guinean town were under security surveillance.
"They are especially regarding the young men and women with suspicion. One Guinean security told my cousin to be careful. He said, 'You Liberians are starting again; but we will deal with you'," Jewelly claimed.
Jewelly said given the gravity of what Cephus published and given the confidence with which he requested preliminary investigators to prove him wrong, there was no question that he knew more than he has published.
"He must therefore tell the Liberian people what he knows. If they let him go before he told the whole truth, he may do the same thing again or he will set a precedence that other reckless news publishers will follow," Jewelly said.
But while Sampson Kula of Central Monrovia agreed with Jewelly, he said unless the government prosecuted Mr. Cephus quickly instead of moving him from one cell to the other, it risks losing public confidence and sympathy in the matter.
"We have seen this before. Government arrested people for wrongdoing and instead of prosecuting them, held them in jail under humiliating conditions only to grant them presidential amnesty.
Today, it is difficult what to make of these individuals: were they victims or villains let off the hook by a benevolent government? It is confusing. This is why some think the government was dictatorial and was only concerned with silencing its vocal critics. If Cephus is let off the hook, it will not be known tomorrow whether or not what he did was right and the government was wrong or the government was simply being magnanimous," he said.
Meanwhile, many expect that the government will comment on the detention and what it intended to do to establish justice, considering the question of freedom of speech, constitutional responsibility, and professional ethics.
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In Liberia when the power- that- be fails miserably, it turns to assert its frustration on the journalists and finally if this policy doesn't work then to the people. Ms. Ellen's administration is no acception to this. It is very sad that Ellen on many occations has admitted that corruption can not and will not be controlled by her administration. This was also accentuated by a minister of the justice ministry when she said that most of the corrupt people in the society, Liberian, are not young people but friends in government. What a shame and disappointing situation. Yes, Ellen Sirleaf of LAP, Ellen Sirleaf of Tolbert's administration and Ellen Sirleaf who paid the first contribution to free Charles Taylor from jail and sent him to Libya to come and slaughter his people, has failed. Yes, that saying that empty drums makes the loudest noise has been proven.Yes, Ellen wanted to become the president of Liberia at all cost, she was the saviour. Now she has gained power she is the vampire.
Many of you Liberians ears are open to hear negative things about your country's leaders especially Ellen Johnson. The one and only fact you guys know is that she contributed money to the NPFL. Corruption is not a new practice in Liberia because she is the head of the government. Corruption started in the 1800. During the days of Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor, neither of you guys would have been able to write such story. Ellen will never support any group to bring hardship to her neighboring country.
Well as this Analyst article rightly states, There is no gainsaying that the Sirleaf Administration honors freedom of speech and of the press as guaranteed by the Constitution of Liberia. But it is doing so with strings attached - keen on the exercise of the responsibility attached to these constitutional guarantees. The central theme here is that the article confirms that the Sirleaf administration honors freedom of speech. No one in their right mind can state with all honesty that the independent press has not been allowed to criticize the Sirleaf administration when it sees fit. This is a part of building a democratic society. Even the most critically US-based internet website, FrontPage Africa, has been allowed to receive a bank loan locally to open its operations within the country. However, people have not been keen to praise the government for allowing a strongly critical opinion-based internet outfit to establish a newspaper in Liberia. Even opposition politician, George Weah, has been allowed to maintain his radio broadcasting outfit without any government interruptions. This is a clear example of the respect for the rights of press to criticize you without censorship. The examples by the Sirleaf administration are clear, there is no debating that. However, Liberians experienced a far different situation during the days of Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor when news offices were burnt, equipment destroyed, and several journalists jailed on a regular basis. We are talking about more than 15 years of such abuse of freedoms endured by the Liberian press, if you exclude the war period when pressmen were killed at random by all warring factions. However, Liberians have short memories. We have not learned how to appreciate progress, and use the progress as pedestal upon which to build on. We rather tear down the progress previously accomplished, and start from scratch only to find out later that in fact, we were much better off initially. This impedes our development because each generation seems to be repeating things that were tackled by previous generations. More specifically, Liberians must realize that in spite of having the freedom of speech and of the press, we need to exercise responsibility over what we say about others, about institutions, and about countries. This is especially important when the information is coming from unreliable sources or the source has an agenda that is only political. We do our country a major disservice if the independent press allows the opportunity and freedom that it now enjoys to be critical of the government, by overreaching into the realm of yellow journalism and fabricating news to invoke sensationalism. Overzealous and inexperience elements within the press by doing such, could unintentionally plunge Liberia back into civil upheaval. Liberians should also know that we are still in the midst of a very volatile regional security environment. There is the fragile political situation in the Ivory Coast and a fledging dictatorship in Guinea. It would be unpatriotic as a journalist to exercise wreckless disregard for the sovereignty of any of these neighboring countries and publish falsities that may have the tendency of causing a rift between Liberia one of its neighbors. It is my recollection that even in the United States, several times the press would meet with the federal government to gain resoluteness on a story before publishing or hold-off on some other story because of national security concerns. The United States government places heavy political capital on issues that have national security implications. And Liberia, even though we have made major progress on free speech in the last 5 years, is no United States of America when it comes to providing various freedoms to its citizens. This is why, the press must apply discretion when the issues have larger national security consequences. They owe our struggling democracy that much as they enjoy the exercise of this freedom. As we all know, Liberia has not yet fully strengthened its own national security apparatus. Moreover, the country does not need to be in the business of interfering in the national security situations of its neighbors. So let us get real and be objective. I believe the press guy should be interrogated thoroughly and released and if necessary, brought to face the legal system if he did cross the line. He should not be kept imprisoned indefnitely beyond the period of his interrogation unless it is established for national security reasons or for his own personal protection which could jeopardize an pending legal case.
My fellow Liberians:
Why do you always wish negative in everything for your courtry or other Liberians? Remember if one Liberian falls, it affects all Liberians. Perhaps you do not recognize this, but it is the fact. It is right to be critical, but please make recommendations on how to constructively resolve the issues that you are critical about. I did not read any suggestions or recommendation in your comments. Lastly do not hide behind some false ID or user names. If you have the guts to say it, than be a man or woman and reveal that you said it. Please take heed and govern yourselves accordingly. It is all Liberians or no Liberian.
James K. Wah - United States of America
Considering the current state of Liberia, and how fragile the political situation is in the country. Cyrenius Cephus must be ignorant or has a hidden agenda that will cause him to publish such an irresponsible article. With out going into details I will list a few ways this article could affect the country.
1. This will create a climate of fear. And the Liberians have had to live with that for years. Is that what the country needs?
2. If new investors were thinking of coming to the country, this story has the propensity to scare them away. The few jobs that would have been created made never come.
3. Right now alarm bells are ringing all over the place. The Guineans are paranoid and seem to be looking for any reason to blame Liberia for their troubles.
4. The peoples of Liberia has suffer a lot. A story like this is by no means helpful to the country. It is detrimental, repulsive, subversive and potentially dangerous to Liberia.
5. There are many other reasons and ways this article could affect the country. You think of them.
Suggestion: 1. If Cyrenius Cephus does not want to prevail his source in public, he should be summoned by the Legislative Defense Counsel in secrete. It is imperative that the Legislators get to the bottom of this.
2. I consider this a matter of National Security. Anything that has to do with the country's national security should not be taken lightly.
3. If there are individuals using Liberia to carry out subversive activities in guinea, those individual must be found and stopped.
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