Monrovia – In Liberia, the ability of media outlets to gather information from security institutions has been a challenge, but the Liberia National Law Enforcement Association (LNLEA) in an effort to bridge the media and the state securities over the weekend organized a forum to educate journalists on how they could gather information from security agencies.
The two-day forum which ran from December 16-17 brought together reporters covering the Judiciary and spokesmen of various security agencies.
Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Research and Education (CCJRE), Cecil Griffiths, speaking to participants of the forum said.
“In other countries, the Police give information on how the media should cover them and there is also policy put into place for media personnel covering crime scenes.”
The two-day seminar dealt tips for covering accident, fire, rescue scenes, crime and terrorist scenes, protests and riots and stories involving private property. It also gave reporters the opportunity to share their experiences in covering security issues.
Other topics discussed were the criminal justice system processes and terminologies as well as the Criminal Justice high way which represents a simplified version of the criminal justice processes.
During the discussion on accident and fire disaster, crime and terroristic scenes, journalists were asked to abide by measures taken by law enforcement officers to avoid tampering with evidence on the crime scene.
Police Spokesman Sam Collins said during the forum that the failure of the Police to provide journalists with information or giving the access to crime scenes is because the two do not understand how to function separately and at the same time cordially.
“Differences sometimes erupt between the Police officers because both the Police and the media don’t understand each other’s function and that intimidation against some journalists by Police officers by asking him to delete pictures from his camera is not part of Police policy,” Collins said.
Collins asked journalists to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to seek information from the LNP as well as the Facebook page of the Liberia National Police where information is stored on the Liberia National Police (LNP).
He indicated that under the current administration of the LNP under the stewardship of Director Gregory Coleman, the LNP will be engaging the media in a positive way.
He called on the media to avoid reporting with malice against the Liberia National Police, adding that not every information from the LNP should be released for public consumption.
Similar assertions were made by spokespersons of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Liberia National Fire Service. They cautioned journalists to exercise restraint in gathering information from security entities because they are distinct areas where not all information is to be released.
At the end of the seminar on Saturday, December 17, 2016 the Vice President for the Association of Judicial Reporters (AJUR) Victoria Wesseh of the Analyst Newspaper who spoke on behalf of the association lauded the facilitator of the seminar on the various topics which she said was beneficial to the work of the judicial reporters.