Monrovia -T he Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) by and thru the Ministry of Justice Monday shut down the Voice FM Radio Station owned and operated by political commentator Henry Costa without to closure order from the court.
Report by: Kennedy L. Yangian – [email protected]
News of the shutdown of Voice FM 102.7 grew like a wide fire across Monrovia due to the huge listening audience of the early morning Costa Show on the shutting down of the station that is highly critical on key national issues in the country.
“We knew that Voice FM was on the verge of facing this kind of action because the Costa Show was exposing lots of hidden things in government” said one listener of Voice FM who spoke to FrontPageAfrica Monday strictly on the basis of anonymity.
A night time talk show host on the station Tamba Johnny told FrontPageAfrica Monday that Sheriff from the Civil Law Court at the Temple entered the station Monday morning and asked the employees out and shut down the station.
Johnny said the station did not receive any writ from the court until Monday morning when it was shutdown.
Before the shutdown of Voice FM the LTA through the Ministry of Justice legal counsels jointly filed a petition for declaratory judgment and prayed for preliminary injunction from further broadcast to the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice requesting the court to restore LTA rights to shut down the radio station.
“And, now comes petitioner in the entitled cause of action most respectfully praying your honor and the honorable court to declare and affirm the right and authority of the LTA to shut down any radio station who arbitrarily and without first obtaining a license or authorization from the LTA operates radio communication, equipment use frequencies and commences broadcasting for the reasons to showeth” stated the petition for declaratory judgment
Other part of the petition from the Liberia Telecommunication Agency (LTA) states that Section 43.1 of the Civil Procedure Law 43.1 says that court of records including the Civil Law Court within its respective jurisdiction shall have the power to declare rights, status and other legal relations.
Another part of the petition indicated that in the instant case the petitioner has shut down the radio station or broadcast of the respondent FM 102.7 because respondents without any color of rights or law and without any license or any form of authorization from the LTA, the statutory regulatory agency responsible for the issuance of licenses and that the entity hijack 102.7 MHZ and continued broadcasting on the airwaves within the jurisdiction of Liberia.
According to the petition from the LTA the frequency 102.7 MHZ was initially licensed to the Liberia Web Radio on July1, 2013 for the period of one year and has expired since June 2014 and same was never renewed and that the condition for the license was not to be assigned or transfer ownership of the license to another person or entity.
The LTA thru the Justice Ministry further stated in its petition that at no time did it authorized the transfer of Liberia Web Radio License to Voice FM 102.7 neither did it issue a license to Voice FM 102.7
“Wherefore and in in-view of the foregoing petitioner prays your honor for the insurance of the writ of preliminary injunction against the respondent to prohibit refrain and enjoin” stated the petitioner’s petition filed on July 4, 2016.
Injunction, seizure simultaneously
In a writ of Preliminary Injunction served on the same Monday morning the station was shut down, the writ ordered the station to refrain from further broadcasting while at the same time ordering the seizure of all accessories belonging to the station.
“You are hereby commanded to enjoin, retrain and prohibit the above-named Respondents from further engaging in broadcasting on the frequency 102.7 F.M. the Sheriff is ordered to also take possession and custody of any equipment and/or accessories used by the Respondent for the purpose of broadcasting pending the final determination of the petition for Declaratory Judgment out of which this Petition grows until otherwise ordered by this Court”, the preliminary writ of injunction stated.
No order for closure
However in his order the Judge of Civil Law Court Yussif Kaba requested the Clerk of the court to issue a writ of summon to be directed to the Sherriff of Montserrado County to have the respondent to appear to the court on June 20, 2014.
The Judge also stated in its order that there should be a clause inserted in the writ of summon notifying the respondent to file its resistance on July 14, 2016 and failure on the respondent’s part there will be judgment of default against them but there was no order from the court requesting the closure from the station.
In the petition for Declaratory Judgment the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) Petitioner versus The Management of Voice FM 102.7, by and through their authorized representatives and all operating under their authority, respondents, the court mandated the Sheriff to summon the station.
In a writ of summons issued by Judge Yusif Kaba, the court ordered Captain Fofie V. Kamara, Deputy Sheriff for Montserrado County to summon the respondent.
“You are hereby commanded to summon the Respondent in the above-entitled cause of action, to appear before the Civil Law Court for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Montserrado County, temple of Justice Building, sitting in its September Term, A.D. 2016, at the hour of ten o’clock in the morning of June 20th, A.D. 2016 to answer the petition of the above-named Petitioner in Petition for Declaratory Judgment, and to notify the said Respondent that upon their failure to so appear, judgment by default will be rendered against them”, stated the Writ of summon.
Produce permit-MICAT challenges
Deputy Information Minister Isaac Jackson has stated that the local media entity believed to be owned by renowned Liberian businessman and Presidential hopeful Benoni Urey does not have a permit from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
Deputy Minister Jackson told journalists Monday, that even though Voice FM is not recognized, it has been operating illegally; using the frequency registered by the Liberian Web-Radio which is intended to be operating via the Web, rather than the current medium of operation by Voice FM.
“We have never issued Voice FM any permit or whatsoever. It is an interesting story with Voice FM, it started up with a web-radio”, Deputy Minister Jackson stressed.
He named the Liberia Web-Radio as the only media outlet with the frequency 102.7 the Ministry along with its regulatory agencies responsible is aware of, which has accordingly obtained a permit for operations rather than Voice FM.
The Liberia Web-Radio according to him registered as a non-commercial based radio and intended operating as a community radio station, instead of being commercialized as the case of Voice FM.
“In keeping with our laws, if you want a strong frequency because of its sensitivity as regulated, you must notify the government agency responsible” citing, Voice FM did not made any notification to the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism in obtaining a frequency from web-radio to Voice FM.
Deputy Minister Jackson revealed that the Liberia Web-Radio complained Voice FM of hijacking their frequency at which time the entity was preparing to operate, a situation he said, drew the attention of the Liberian government.
“I went to Voice FM and said to them, I repeat, paying money into government coffers for permit doesn’t automatically qualify you for the permit because if we allow that it will be constituting you to bending our rules to regulate”, Deputy Minister Jackson added, maintaining that Voice FM did not meet the criteria set by the Ministry of Information.
Deputy Minister Jackson at the same time condemned Voice FM for failing to include in its editorial team a journalist who is a legitimate member of the Press Union of Liberia, describing it as frustrating.
However, the management of Voice FM has maintained that it has been doing business knowingly with the Liberia Telecommunications Authority and other government agencies despite claims that it has not obtained operational permit.