BACKGROUND REPORT By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
From all indications, Deputy Information Minister Eugene Fahngon’s insistence on changing the original COVID-19 press passes is not being done in a vacuum and he clearly taking cue from above him.
Judging by the outburst made last week by President George Weah’s Chief of Staff and Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill that Journalists who refuse to get the new passes will have themselves to blame, clearly shows that the controversial Deputy Information Minister is being fired up by the Executive Mansion.
They are claiming that the original access passes issued in April and carrying the signature of the Information Minister proper, Lenn Eugene Nagbe were being duplicated and that they were in the possession of none Journalists. But the Deputy Minister has so far failed to produce any evidence.
Fahngon came up with the changing of passes shortly after his boss, Minister Nagbe came down with Coronavirus and was admitted at the 14 Military Hospital on the outskirts of Monrovia, after being tested positive for COVID-19.
The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) membership last weekend resolved not to go along with the change being forced down the throat of the media community and that Journalists will use their regular press cards from their various media institutions and their PUL membership cards.
The umbrella group for Liberian Journalists sees Fahngon’s move as an unnecessary distraction in the fight against the Coronavirus, in which the media is one of the frontline fighters.
But the Deputy Information Minister has continued to remain adamant, boasting of strictly enforcing the President’s mandate in his State of Emergency declaration of April 10, 2020 that Journalist covering COVID-19 must be given access passes.
So, a standoff has ensued and the issue has sparked both local and international concerns, as the Liberian Senate’s Committee on Information and Broadcasting has begun holding separate talks with both sides.
“The Senate must call Deputy Minister Fahngon to order,” says the Reporters Association of Liberia, the largest Auxillary within the PUL.
Some Senators share this sentiment. One of them is Lofa County Senator, George Tengbeh who said at a meeting at the Capitol this week:
“The Senate needs to take a stand on this. Journalists don’t need pass to cover COVID-19…This is not an armed conflict, this is a health crisis. Let’s call a spade a spade. This is a form of harassment completely,” Sen. Tengbeh asserted during a meeting on Monday, May 11, 2020.
As for Senator Darius Dillon of Montserrado County: “The Media should be left to operate on their institutional press cards. An attempt by MICAT to continue this against the media will be considered contemptuous.
After separate talks with the PUL and Deputy Minister Fahngon at the Capitol Building last Monday, the Senate Committee on Information and Broadcasting is due to submit a report to plenary.
But one thing remains clear on the minds of many Lawmakers is that this is one of the worse times to antagonize the media and restrict their movement and coverage of this fight against an invisible enemy (Coronavirus) that has up to Monday, May 11, 2020 claimed 20 lives in Liberia, with 211 confirmed cases.
And the media is the medium through with the messages about how to prevent the spread of this killer virus can be channeled throughout the length and breadth of Liberia and beyond. And this cannot be effectively done in the absence of a free and enabling environment, lockdown, stay home action and State of Emergency notwithstanding.
So, the message of Senator Henrique Tokpa of Bong County, who is former President of the Cuttington University (CU) was emphatic this week, when he said at the Capitol Building: “For us (Lawmakers), we took an oath to protect and defend the Liberian constitution in Article 15.”