“Press Freedom Will Continue To Be Threatened Unless” – PUL Official

Monrovia – The Vice President of the Press Union of Liberia Jallah E. Grayfield, III has intoned that press freedom will continue to be under threat unless anti press freedom laws that are still active in Liberian laws are repealed.

Mr. Grayfield said  even though the Liberian leader President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has consistently assured the media that harmful laws that threatened the growth of the Liberian media would be sent to the legislature to be repealed, those laws are still active, thereby hunting media personals who write critical stories about government and its officials

The Press Union of Liberia Vice President spoke Friday at programs organized by the Intellectual Pan-African Conscious Corner on the Theme “The Road to 2017, the role of the media in the sustenance of Liberia’s democracy.”

Mr. Grayfield in his presentation intoned that the media in Liberia is not totally free because powerful people in government were still instituting law suits against media personals as a mean of punishing them by sending them to jail and not necessarily getting a redress in court.

He said even laws that were publicized by previous governments including the Degree 88A instituted by Samuel K. Doe are still being used by government today to suppress the media and politicians who have dissenting opinions.

Mr. Grayfield said the country’s democracy will only thrive when these harmful laws that suppress freedom of the press are deleted including the law on sedition that are being used by this government to pursue  and silence critical talkers including Vandalak Patrick and Opposition Politician Simeon Freeman

The Press union of Liberia vice President said given the critical role of  the media everywhere, democracy can only  be maintained in Liberia when the press is allow to operate free  of intimidation, suppression and harassment .

Mr. Grayfield said the 2017 elections remained critical to the Liberian people noting that only the media will be able to tell the full Liberian story by educating and informing the Liberian people of the electoral process.

The Press Union of Liberia Vice President challenged the Liberian media to not get weary of reporting the truth, but stressed that the media should remain balance in its reportage and not forget about its social responsibility to the state.

Mr. Grayfield has meanwhile offered one scholarship to the Pan – African Conscious center for any of its student desirous of entering the journalism Profession to pursue a nine month intensive diploma program at the Peter Quaqua School of journalism, operated by the Media Aid Foundation.