Liberia’s Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe has challenge his suspension from the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), after the PUL’s Leadership‘s decision to “with immediate effect” suspend his membership on Wednesday.
“The decision to suspend the Minister comes after he (Minister Nagbe) described the PUL as a useless entity during a talk show appearance on Christmas Day on Fabric 101.1 FM in Monrovia,” a PUL press statement said.
The Minister who worked as a journalist up to the infamous Taylor Era, had appeared to discuss the current case of the government’s handling of the media along Journalists Rodney Sieh and Frank Sainworla.
According to the PUL, Ministers of Information are often given honorary membership of the Union because of their role in the sector but Nagbe’s 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.
But shortly after the press release was issued, Minister Nagbe told the local media that the action was taken by a segment of the PUL leadership and he has vowed to challenge it in line with the Union’s constitution.
The Liberian Information Minister repeated his claim that the PUL leadership has been ineffective and not useful in playing its oversight role of the media in this country. He said this was why he referred to the PUL as “useless” but he had to take back the word due to text messages he’d received that it was too harsh.
In its press statement on Wednesday, “the Press Union insists 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’s 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 must at all times 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.
Said Press Union of Liberia President, Charles B. Coffey, Jr.: “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. Rather it is cataloging government’s pronouncements coupled with few sporadic investigations.
Minister Nagbe is credited for insulting Liberian television news anchor, Estella Liberty Karmo now a Deputy Director-General for Administration at the State-owned broadcaster, ELBC on camera during President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s final State of the Nation Address in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Press Union of Liberia has mandated the revision of Minister Nagbe’s membership with the Union by its committee on membership; the National Media Council has also been asked to investigate the poor deportment of Minister Nagbe as a member of the PUL.
The outcome of the review will inform an even more appropriate reprimand for the minister.
Over the past week, influencers within the power cycle of President George M. Weah have intensified their attacks on 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.