The police action followed a series of publication by the paper including one on the alleged formation of an interim government to replace the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration. The police is said to have taken away “two laptops and arrested two of the paper’s senior staff,” according to Mr. The Paper’s publisher, Philibert Brown informed the Press Union in a complaint that three trucks load of heavily armed police from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), threw tear gas in the office before breaking the door to the main entrance. Immediately denounce this action… and reopen the National Chronicle.”ĭozens of armed police acting without court order on August 14 violently seized the paper in an operation that caused panic in the streets of Monrovia. WAJA says its attention has been drawn to the unfortunate closure of the National Chronicle Newspaper in Liberia and joins its affiliate, the Press Union of Liberia in calling on the Government to rethink its decision.Īccording to the Press Union of Liberia the action is “a further expression of intolerance and an unwarranted attack on the free press, and calls upon President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to Quaqua said it is understandable that the rapid spread of the virus is causing panic across the region, but governments are under obligation to manage the anxieties of their citizens and not to escalate their worries.” WAJA President Peter Quaqua said, “It is our collective responsibility to prevent the spread of the disease, but state authorities have the greatest responsibility in providing hope for the suffering people in these difficult times.” So far the disease has killed over one thousand, one hundred people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. The sub-regional media body is therefore calling on the media in non-affected countries to get seized of the emergency by providing public education to their population to prevent the outbreak of the disease. While noting the extraordinary efforts of the media so far in disseminating behavioral change messages, WAJA challenges authorities to manage the aggression of the virus carefully as it poses greater threat to the health and stability of the entire region. WAJA says the media is under social and ethical obligation to serve the greater good of humanity in these critical times of heightened fear of death caused by the rapid spread of the disease in the region. The West African Journalists Association (WAJA) has today extended its condolences and solidarity with the governments and peoples in the sub-region affected by the Ebola outbreak, and calls on the media to double its support in fighting back the virus.
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