Liberia: “Draconian Libel Laws” Condemned

Leading international media organizations, in a letter to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, have expressed concerns over the use of ‘draconian libel laws to stifle freedom of expression and of the press in the country, while urging the President “to halt” corruption in the judiciary.”

The letter to the President follows a unanimous libel verdict from a jury against this paper, ordered to pay US903,000 to the Consolidated Group Inc., one of former President Charles Taylor’s companies, for referring to road building equipment it ordered for government almost immediately after the government took power in 2006. Some of the equipment, such as the Alpha Plant, remains in the government’s junk yard on General Services Agency Road.

In its press release Tuesday, entitled “WAN-IFRA Condemns Libel Judgment in Liberia”, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum protested to the President Sirleaf, against “the use of draconian libel awards to stifle press freedom in the West African nation.”

The release: In a letter to the President, the global press organisations condemned a US$900,000 libel judgment against one newspaper and a US$ 2 million libel action brought by a government minister against another.

“We remind you that an award of damages should in all cases be reasonable and proportionate to any harm that may have been caused, the letter said. Furthermore, they contradict the principles of the Declaration of Table Mountain, which call on African governments as a matter of urgency to review and abolish all laws that restrict press freedom.

Jurors in Monrovia found the New Democrat newspaper liable for US$900,000 in damages on 17 February on the grounds that it had defamed Consolidated Group Incorporated, a privately owned company of former President Charles Taylor. The newspaper has said it would appeal.

In a separate case, a former Agriculture Minister, Christopher Toe, filed a US$2 million action for libel damages against FrontPage Africa newspaper, its editor-in-chief Rodney Sieh, and reporter Samwar Fallah. The lawsuit cited several articles dating back to 2007 that accused Dr. Toe of diverting millions of dollars away from funds intended for public use.

“Without commenting on whether the facts of these two cases justify a finding of liability, we are seriously concerned that the size of the award made against the New Democrat and the damages sought against FrontPage Africa are punitive,” said WAN-IFRA and the World Editors Forum in the letter to President Sirleaf.

The Liberian judicial system has come under scrutiny following US State Department allegations that it is “largely nonfunctional and plagued by corruption. Judges regularly received bribes or other illegal gifts from damages that they awarded in civil cases [and] sometimes requested bribes to try cases... Defense attorneys and prosecutors sometimes suggested that defendants pay a gratuity to appease or secure favorable rulings from judges, prosecutors, jurors, and police officers.

- March 24, 2010 by New Democrat

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Source: www.newdemocratnews.com/story.php (accessed on 25.03.10)