-As the President picks bone with Liberian Journalists and the BBC at PUL Awards
By Our Staff Writer
Liberian President George Manneh has not hidden his uneasiness with reports coming out of news outlets both in Liberia and international agencies, as he has strongly criticized their reportage, branding them as lies.
Speaking at the PUL 2018/2019 Excellence Awards night at the Paynesville City Hall outside Monrovia on Friday August 9, 2019, President Weah claimed that most Liberian Journalist don’t report the truth.
He said his government was committed too upholding press freedom and free speech judging by the recent coming into force of the Kamara A. Kamara Act which decriminalizes speech offense, but warned that this law does not mean that those libeling citizens don’t have the right to seek legal recourse through libel suit.
According to him, the media is running with the story that he has not declared his asset, something he said is not true because he said he did this since July 25, 2019 and later got his receipt from the appropriate government institution.
But what the Liberian leader did not say is he failed to declare his asset in line with the Code of Conduct Act, which requires him and his officials to do so upon taking office, something he did almost six months after being inaugurated on January 22, 2019.
The Code of Conduct law spells it out clearly in Part 10.1 about when officials (both incumbent and those new comers) must declare their assets:
“10.1 Declaration of Assets and Performance Bonds
“Every Public Official and Employee of Government involved in making decisions affecting contracting, tendering or procurement, and issuance of licenses of various types shall sign performance or financial bonds and shall in addition declare his or her income, assets and liabilities prior to taking office and thereafter: a. at the end of every three years; b. on promotion or progression from one level to another; c. upon transfer to another public office; and d. upon retirement or resignation.”
In fact, the bulk of his CDC government officials are yet to declare their assets and liabilities. Even those who have belatedly done are still not in full compliance, as a statement from the Liberia Anti Corruption Commission (LACC) under former Chairman Cllr. James Verdier said most of those assets submitted had lots of discrepencies.
Also, the Liberian leader’s threat to penalize his officials failing to declare their assets made since last year is yet to gain traction.
Also last Friday evening, President Weah also launched an attack on the BBC, which he claimed had falsely reported that he had to abandon his office recently because snake was in his office.
What is a fact is that few months ago, both President Weah and staff of the Foreign Ministry, which host the office of the Presidency, did not operate from that facility for over a week due to fumigation work being carried out there, as it had been officially confirmed that two black snakes were seen on the ground floor of the office. Workers at the Foreign Ministry said they made an unsuccessful attempts to kill the snakes.
The snakes were reported to have escaped in some opening in the building, something that triggered the scare and caused the President and others to temporarily abandon the building..
In a clear reference to the BBC Monrovia Correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh, the Liberian Chief Executive said he lied in a report to London that snake was in his office.
President Weah called on the media to report the truth in order to enhance Liberia’s image.
According to the CDC Standard Bearer, there are bad apples in the Liberian media that the PUL should purge saying that, “the dangerous rise of unprofessionalism within its ranks. Do not let the bad apples to spoil the bunch.