Liberian newspaper editor won’t knuckle down

Monrovia – The managing editor of the Independent, the newspaper which the Government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf banned for publishing a gang sex photograph involving former State for Presidential Affairs minister Willis Knuckles, says he wants justice and not pardon in the paper's case currently before the Supreme Court of Liberia.

Journalist Dean said Information Minister Dr Laurence Bropleh's recent statement that he is begging and negotiating with the Government to pardon the newspaper is a complete lie and another scheme to bring the newspaper to public disrepute.

He described the management of the Independent newspaper as a team of civilized and trained media experts who believe in the rule of law and sees the court as the final arbiter of justice.

A Liberian newspaper quoted Information Minister Bropleh as informing a gathering of journalists on World Press Freedom Day, that the government of Liberia was on the verge of lifting its ban on the newspaper because according to him Dean has been begging for the lifting of the one year ban.

Dean told CEMESP that at no time had he ever attempted begging the Government of Liberia to reopen the Independent.

"We are not petit in our thoughts, neither are we desperate to have the newspaper reappear on the news-stand, that we will sell our rights and trade off our moral imperatives. We want the ruling of the Supreme Court and not pardon," Dean says.

Article courtesy of CEMESP