Truth Commission Reacts to Liberian Media Reports

News

Semantics King,Jr.,Minneapolis

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia(TRC) has sharply reacted to media reports circulating in local Liberian dailies that there is an apparent division among commissioners of the TRC over a report supposedly submitted to the country’s National Legislature recommending the establishment of a special court to try those guilty of rights abuses during Liberia’s brutal civil war.

In a press release on Monday by the TRC,its Media and Information Officer,Mambu J.Kpargoi said the commission was “extremely surprised  and flabbergasted by the Monday,January 19,2009 front page lead story of The Renaissance Newspaper caption: TRC Commissioners Divided.”

The release said Mr. Kpargoi was falsely quoted as reacting to the communication from four commissioners of the TRC distancing themselves from a “report of the commission to the national legislature.”

“The Media and Information Officer of the TRC,” the release added, ” is especially astounded by the writer of the story’s ‘authoritative’ attribution untruly portraying an interview at which time comments printed in the newspaper were obtained.”

“Tenants of professional journalism provide that journalists and news organs desirous of extracting information and responses from individuals or news makers must first inform them of their intentions or ask for an interview.But the Media and Information Officer of the TRC was neither asked for a response or interview by The Renaissance Newspaper reporter nor ever granted an interview on the matter ,and hence the erroneous nature and character of the new report.”

Mr. Kpargoi said in the press release that as a professional journalist himself and a public relations practitioner, he  is aware that his terms of reference is limited to planning and promoting the image of the commission, and he would not engage in acts or activities that would undermine the credibility of the commission.

“Members of the fourth estate-the media-are guided by professional and ethical norms, and it is behooving when  one of our our kind elects to engage in acts that are inimical to the core values and practices pf this noble and respectable profession,” the release said.

The Information Officer stressed in the release that at no time was he interviewed or ever granted an interview to any reporter of The Renaissance Newspaper as reported on the matter, and he demands that the paper publishes in its next edition an erratum accepting responsibility for this erroneous attribution.

But seven other local Liberian newspapers including The Daily Observer,Public Agenda,The News,New Democrat, The Heritage, The National Chronicle and The Analyst reported that four TRC commissioners-Dede Dolopei,Sheik Kafumba Konneh,Gerald Coleman and Cllr.Pearl Brown Bull- denied having any knowledge of the report and called on the Liberian Legislature to reject it.

Editor @ January 19, 2009