MONROVIA – When a veteran of Liberia’s darkest press eras sounds an alarm, history speaks. Gabriel I.H. Williams is a former acting president of the Press Union of Liberia. He has now warned Liberian politicians to stop branding journalists as bribe seekers without evidence. His statement draws a deliberate line from today’s smear campaigns to the Doe and Taylor years, when verbal attacks preceded physical ones. Williams ties the current hostility to the cocaine scandal engulfing high-profile officials. He warns that intimidating journalists could invite international sanctions and stain the Boakai administration’s image abroad. His deeper indictment is strategic: a government that cannot communicate its own progress ends up fighting the messengers instead. THE ANALYST reports.
Gabriel I.H. Williams, former acting president of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), has issued a strong warning against Liberian politicians and others to immediately desist from muzzling the Liberian media by portraying journalists as bribe seekers without providing evidence to back their allegations.
Williams, who is the founding Managing Editor of The Inquirer newspaper, said the ongoing attempts to silence the Liberian media by politicians and their hangers-on would only undermine the peace in the country and stain Liberia’s international image.
Echoes of Doe, Taylor Eras
In a press statement issued over the weekend, Williams noted that those politicians and political operatives who have launched such virulent verbal attacks against the media and journalists are on the wrong side of history, as was the case during the respective eras of former Liberian leaders Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor, when journalists and media entities were under constant verbal and physical attacks.
During Liberia’s recent evil past under these two dictators, he added, verbal attacks were accompanied by physical attacks against journalists and media entities simply for reporting developments unfolding in the country.
Williams, also Chairman of the Board of Shareholders of The Inquirer newspaper, who recently returned to Liberia from the United States, said he was constrained to react to a growing verbal attack or smear campaign against journalists and media entities by individuals in government and their operatives, as well as others operating with various political agendas.
“How do we expect our country’s international partners to view the Liberian media and the country as a whole when unproven allegations are being peddled against journalists by government officials and others without justification? I’m not claiming that there have been no instances of bribery involving journalists, but where the pieces of evidence against those journalists and media entities are?” he questioned.
Cocaine Scandal and Sanctions Risk
He warned those in government to desist from their confrontational postures and smear campaigns against the independent media and journalists for selfish political reasons, as such actions would eventually hurt the international image of the Boakai administration.
The international community, he cautioned, is closely watching developments in Liberia. Some of these developments, he noted, could soon lead to sanctions if corrective measures are not taken, such as the ongoing cocaine scandal, where high-profile officials being implicated are using their surrogates to intimidate journalists into silence to the detriment of the government.
Instead of attacking journalists and others demanding answers, Williams argued, the burden is on the government to seek professional support in order to carve a comprehensive communications strategy that would effectively address matters surrounding the cocaine situation, among others.
He said he finds it very baffling that the government is not seen to have adopted a professional communications strategy that could provide the needed clarity to easily lay the matter to rest in a timely period, instead of resorting to verbal attacks against journalists and others.
He recalled a recent statement by the President of the PUL, Julius Kanubah, warning public officials against using state communication platforms to attack critics and political opponents in defense of the government.
The PUL President declared in the statement quoted by the local media that the politics of insults and confrontation has no place in responsible public information dissemination across Liberia.
Commends Progress, Faults Communication
Williams, however, observed that since coming to power, the Boakai administration has made commendable progress in developing the country to improve the living conditions of the Liberian people, such as road construction across the country and expansion of electricity in Monrovia and its environs, among others.
The greatest challenge facing the government, he asserted, is the failure to effectively communicate these and other positive developments to the Liberian people.
He warned that the government is shooting itself in the foot, so to speak, by seriously failing to effectively communicate with the Liberian people about the progress being made in the country, but instead is drowned in political mudslinging with the opposition and the media.
Until the Boakai administration can recognize the critical importance of adopting a comprehensive communications strategy to effectively articulate its policies and programs to the Liberian people instead of the ongoing political rhetoric, he cautioned, the worst is yet to come.
Advice to Journalists
Meanwhile, Williams, who also served as Deputy Minister for Public Affairs during the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has cautioned Liberian journalists to be mindful of their responsibility to inform and educate the public about developments in order to help move the country forward in the right direction.
He added that journalists must help to set the agenda for a wholesome functioning society.
While the media must continue to expose wrongdoing and hold public officials accountable, he indicated, it must equally report on positive developments taking place across the country. He pointed out that there is too much political agitation causing growing division in the country.
In order to reverse this negative trend, he urged that journalists should not only report on conflicts, but should also focus on reporting those positive developments happening in the country, because not everything occurring is wrong or bad.
He emphasized that balanced media reporting can help reduce political polarization and promote national unity.
Despite the challenges, Williams stated that there are credible media entities and journalists that are committed to professionalism.
“This is why we will not hesitate to advocate for international actions against Liberian political leaders or any government that would attempt to muzzle the media by use of verbal and physical threats directly or through their stooges,” he declared.