-Magic FM Says After Reportedly Questioning DEA’s Breach of Health Regulations
There seems to be no respite to the manhandling of Liberian journalists at the hands of mainly security personnel, despite recent protest by the media community and the setting up of a board of inquest to identify the root causes and remedy the situation.
Since the death of broadcast journalist Zenu Miller of OK FM, who similarly complained of being severely beaten by a guard of the Executive Protective Service (EPS) before dying days later in February 2020, several other attacks have been reported. This has included seven attacks in just two week, including those with reporters covering a demonstration staged by pro-war crimes court advocates, according to a PUL report.
In the most recent case, 15 officers of the local Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) on orders of a local commander of the anti-drug agency, after the reporter questioned their mass gathering at the wake keeping of a colleague in contravention of the health regulation against mass gathering in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. Buchanan is 88 miles southeast of Monrovia.
Journalist Frank Payne is said to have been verbally assaulted and threatened before being brutalized on orders of LDEA Acting Grand Bassa County CommanderMr. George F. Johnson in the Perchuzohn Community in Buchanan City on March 27, 2020.
It was at this point that “the DEA Commander held his shirt, slapped and naked him, and ordered about 15 officers to start beating, kicking and dragging him to the ground”, a letter of complaint to the PUL signed by Magic FM Manager Christopher Yarwoe read.
The LDEA Commander reportedly dismissed the crowd and tuned off the music before ordering the flogging of Payne and following the arrival of the County Police Commander Chief Superintendent Siakor Freeman.
The County Police Commander is said to have frowned after arriving on the scene as the LDEA officers attempted dragging the manhandled journalist into his vehicle, saying his is a journalist”, you guys should not have done that to him,”.
In the complaint letter to the PUL, Yarwoe said “Mr. President, we would like to inform you that during the DEA brutality on Journalist, Frank Payne, he lost his wedding ring, seven hundred United States Dollars ($700USD) and a digital recorder. We have done a formal complaint to the police headquarters in Buchanan and informed the County Superintendent Hon. Janjay Baikpeh about the brutality against Mr. Payne”.
He said though the act has been condemned in some quarters, mere condemnation is not sufficient, adding: “We would need your protection in this investigation.”
They expressed disappointment in the action of the Acting DEA Commander, Mr. George F. Johnson, who, instead of helping to enforce the health protocols, is bent on manhandling journalists.
“We are asking the PUL to stand with us in this matter so that justice can prevail and discourage the act of attack and brutality against journalists in the country”, Yarwoe said.
They said they are convinced the PUL will not take the matter lightly, considering the critical nature of the latest case.