(MFWA/IFEX) – A magisterial court in Monrovia, presided over by Judge Joseph Fayiah, has placed an injunction on publication of the privately-owned “New Broom” newspaper. According to MFWA sources in Liberia, a 14 July 2004 letter signed by the court clerk instructed all printing houses in the country not to print “New Broom” because the […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – A magisterial court in Monrovia, presided over by Judge Joseph Fayiah, has placed an injunction on publication of the privately-owned “New Broom” newspaper.
According to MFWA sources in Liberia, a 14 July 2004 letter signed by the court clerk instructed all printing houses in the country not to print “New Broom” because the newspaper’s management had failed to appear in court to answer to contempt charges.
Managing editor Roland Worwee and “New Broom” staff were served with a writ of summons to appear in court on 11 June 2004 to answer to charges of “criminal malevolence” brought against them by Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation (BIN) Commissioner Abraham Mitchell. The newspaper’s management, however, failed to respond to the summons.
The BIN commissioner’s suit followed a publication in the “New Broom” in which he was alleged to have received a bribe from the Sierra Leonean ambassador to Liberia, Patrick Foyah, for the release of a number of Sierra Leonean nationals who had been detained for breaking Liberia’s immigration laws. Mitchell denied the allegation and gave a three-day ultimatum for the newspaper to retract the story and issue an apology. He took legal action when the paper failed to comply.
The MFWA believes that the court should address the substantive charge of “criminal malevolence” brought against the newspaper. Since the specific relief sought by the plaintiff was for a redress of the alleged injury to his reputation, any attempt to silence the newspaper is an infringement on media freedom and freedom of expression in general.