Monrovia – The Leadership of the Press Union of Liberia has immediate effect suspended the membership of Liberia’s Information Minister Len Eugene Nagbe with the organization for rowdy behavior.
The move to suspend comes after Minister Nagbe termed the PUL a useless entity during a Christmas Day talk show appearance (December 25, 2018) in Monrovia.
The Minister who worked as a journalist up to the infamous Taylor Era had appeared to discuss the current case of the government handling of the media along Journalists Rodney Sieh and Frank Sanworla.
Ministers of Information are often given honorary membership of the Union because of their role in the sector but Nagbe situation is especially appalling because of his background in journalism.
Professionals in journalism in Liberia or affiliating with the PUL are held to every word and intent of the Code of Conduct for journalists in the country.
The Press Union insist that the deportment of the Minister of Information who is regarded as one of the ambassadors of Liberian Journalism in government was emphatically unruly and disturbing.
Minister Nagbe unprecedented slam on the parent body for journalists, the Union asserts speaks to the length people of his category can sometimes go to defend their paycheck.
No matter difficult the search for affluence, professionals must not allow their intelligence to be corroded but at all time strive to uphold the sanctity of one of few institutions Liberia has to preserved not even when ideas are in short supply to express our situational disagreements, the Union stressed.
PUL President, Charles B. Coffey said, “Minister Nagbe’s frustration is reflective of the Weah Administration’s annoyance on the exactitude in the coverage of proceedings of the government in its first year.”
The Media in Liberia, Coffey said is not providing tough scrutiny but a catalog of government’s pronouncement couple with few sporadic investigations.
Minister Nagbe is credited for insulted Liberian television news celebrity Estella Liberty Karmo now a Deputy Director General at the State Radio on camera during President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s last State of the Nation Address in 2017.
The Press Union of Liberia has mandated the revision of the Minister Nagbe’s membership with the Union by its committee on membership; the National Media Council has also been asked to investigative the poor deportment of the Information Minister and a member of the PUL. Outcomes of the review will inform an even more appropriate reprimand for Hon. Len Eugene Nagbe.
In the last five days, influencers within the power cycle of President George M. Weah have intensified attacks against the media in Liberia.
Meanwhile, the Press Union of Liberia is again calling on President Weah to advise his assistants to end their provocative comments and actions against the media because these negative energies undercut the country’s democratic gains.
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