Monrovia, Liberia
A Liberian judge on Tuesday found three media institutions guilty of spreading hate messages ahead of last week’s disputed presidential poll but allowed them back on air.
Government had ordered the closure of the three radio and television stations following deadly clashes between police and opposition protesters that left at least two dead on the eve of the November 8 run-off.
Power FM and TV, Love FM and TV as well as football star and opposition vice-presidential candidate George Weah’s Kings FM and Clar TV, were charged with “broadcasting hate and inciting messages intended to disrupt public peace.”
“The actions of the institutions – for example calling for the general disarmament of state security forces and UN peacekeepers in the country – was an indictable offence under Chapter Three of the 1986 constitution of Liberia,” Judge James Zota ruled.
Supreme Court of Liberia
“The actions of the media institutions warranted their closure as was done, so as to preserve public peace and security.”
Zota however decided against slapping any penalty on the broadcasters and said it was important they re-open in the name of press freedom.
Media organizations had criticized the closure as a crackdown on the media but President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf defended her decision.
“They were really inciting the public to do things,” she told reporters last week, adding they were closed to “prevent the incitement of further violence and protect lives.”
Sirleaf referred to Rwanda where hate messages and propaganda were used to call for the extermination of the Tutsi minority in the 1994 genocide.
Chief prosecutor Walkins Wright said: “Even though we do not agree with the ruling here today we must abide by what the law says.”
The owner of Power FM and TV Aaron Kollie said the guilty ruling was a “miscarriage of justice”.
The opposition boycotted last week’s run-off, accusing the Nobel-winning incumbent of rigging her way to re-election and raising tensions in a country still recovering from a brutal 1989-2003 civil war that left some 250,000 dead.
Source: AFP
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It is hard to say but, I will make this comment.Why should Liberians think like a woman that is in delivery pain.She will cry out “Oh God,oh God,I will not do it again” but when she sees her baby next to her,she will forget about the vow that she just made.We continue to talk about the 14 years of war and about 250,000 dead.Are those really real humans or bush animals? If we are talking about human beings then, let us understand the type of people that actually died in the Liberian conflict.I think the answer is clear,the poor were the one that died the most.Those with cash were able to take their family to safety. Now that God has blessed us with PEACE, we are now acting like nothing has ever happened in our country. Will we sit and listen to them for the futures of our children to be destroyed as we did in the past? Even some of those in the media today used to look at white and turned it into red and people used to believed them.Now they are back to make money out of our blood.Liberians,let us be smart this time and live in peace.If some one feels they control the population of our nation they should not have walked of the election. For some of we are interested in the education of our children their futures because we don’t have money to take them out of the country as those who want to impose war on us . ask them about their family,are their children in Liberia going to school? Why should you act like a woman in delivery pain?