Monrovia – Human Rights Lawyers Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe has raised alarm over the appearance of a Liberian journalist Festus Poquie at the Liberian National Police headquarters, saying it speaks volume to government support to appalling situations in Equatorial Guinea.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah – [email protected]
“As a lawyer, I go to court to defend Journalists More often, but this frequency of my representation in court is not yielding the kind of results,” Cllr. Gongloe told a news conference Thursday in Monrovia.
The human rights lawyer expressed dissatisfaction over government’s practice of arresting journalists. “We have a democracy and our constitution says so. We fought in this country not because of tribalism and religious tolerance but bad governance.”
Journalist Poquie was arrested Thursday at his office by plain-clothes security personnel and subsequently taken to the Liberia National Police headquarters for interrogation after flagging an article in the Thursday’s September 15, 2016 edition of the New Democrat newspaper linking the President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema to harrowing revelations, dictatorship and rights abuses.
The Story was previously published by the Daily Mail UK’s in which it also dubbed Obiang, 74, “Torturer in Chief” for his ‘sadism’”.
The Liberian government through the Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism previously reacted to the New Democrat publication saying, it is extremely disappointed in the poor manner journalism exhibited by the publisher of the New Democrat newspaper since the publication did not contact any authority of the government of Equatorial Guinea to verify and counterbalance what it terms as “libelous claim” made by a British national Thomas Burrows, the original author of the story.
But the Editor of the New Democrat A. Abbas Dulleh noted that the story had no security implications and was well-sourced.
“We had a disclaimer on the story, meaning it is not our own writing. We did not add a word to the story so if they government wants to invite us we do not have a problem.
But the manner in which it was done, plain-clothes officers coming at the office and just arresting him by holding on to his trouser is not right?” Journalist Dulleh stated.
Police Spokesman Sam Collins confirmed that Festus was invited at the Liberia National Police headquarters for interrogation as a result of concerns raised by security personnel in the country.
On Thursday, Cllr. Gongloe said the arrest of Journalist Poquie by Liberian security personnel was geared toward intimidating media practitioners and deterring them from writing professionally.
“Our government is wrong in this way. It has always been wrong but this one is so timely for a journalist to be arrested for flagging an article on a brutal dictator that everyone in the world knows is a dictator and killing people in his country and the one on the internet is even worse than what the Democrat published,” Cllr. Gongloe stated.
Cllr. Gongloe noted that the situation indicated that the Liberian government did not have the political will to change the anti-speech laws and pretended to do so in an effort to get aid from the international community.
The human rights lawyer registered that humiliation against journalists in Liberia did not speak to government’s plan to decriminalized speech because journalists are now being arrested for speaking, an act he termed as censorship against the media.
“What the government is doing now is censorship, by deciding what to write and what to not write and that’s not why we campaign for her. I am very much ashamed of her and can say for free that had she not ordered the arrest of Festus Poquie, it would not have happened.
No amount of aid is worth sacrificing our human dignity in this country. This is Liberia, the liberty and dignity of each one of us is higher than any authority and we should uphold and protect it,” said Cllr. Gongloe.
Cllr. Gongloe pointed out that he was compelled as a legal practitioner to help stop evil deeds being perpetrated by the Sirleaf-led government.
He added that he wanted a greater civil society forum to be organized by working with political parties to put an end to humiliation against the press.
According to him, opposition political party leaders who are not shocked by information surrounding suppression of free speech are those to be suspicious of since the situation should be of serious concern to them.
He expressed surprise that President Sirleaf, a democratically-elected leader would befriend a dictatorial leader in Africa, whom accordingly, came to power as a result of killing his uncle in 1979.
“The country believed to be one of the richest countries is undergoing serious poverty challenge simply as a result of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema holding on to finances” Cllr. Gongloe added.
Meanwhile, the Press Union of Liberia says, it stands firm with Cllr. Gongloe in seeking the full solidarity of journalists across the country because instances leading to harassment and intimidation of media houses is still ongoing in the country.
PUL President Kamara A. Kamara on Thursday urged journalists to be cognizant of the fact that the media should not be humiliated since Liberia is in a period leading to crucial transitions.
“There too many stories about the evil deeds of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on the internet, so we call on everyone including newspaper and radio to go on the internet and publish them in solidarity to the arrest of Festus,” Kamara registered.
This, he said, will show to rest of the world that the matter was a very crucial matter. “We cannot be punishing for speech.
The President and Vice President were recently on radio at a Press Union organized event, emphasizing the need to decriminalized speech but this cannot work when they are arresting people on speech offences.”
Mr. Kamara alarmed that the arrest of Journalist Poquie at the Criminal Service Division at the Liberia National Police spoke to the fact that government was now criminalizing speech instead of decriminalizing it.
Journalist Poquie was meanwhile released Thursday. He had been told that the story had no security implication.
Journalist Poquie told reporters after his released that he was picked up at his New Democrat Office early Thursday morning by unknown security personnel and taken to the Liberia National Police headquarters, where he spent several hours before being released without charges, although he said he was due to return to the LNP headquarters for further interrogation at a later date.