(CEMESP/IFEX) – On 13 October 2006, a senior radio producer at a community radio station in Grand Gedeh County, southeastern Liberia, was badly beaten by four officers of the Liberia National Police on assignment with the county’s police detachment. Journalist Edmond Garley of Smile FM was beaten by the policemen while covering the 13 October […]
(CEMESP/IFEX) – On 13 October 2006, a senior radio producer at a community radio station in Grand Gedeh County, southeastern Liberia, was badly beaten by four officers of the Liberia National Police on assignment with the county’s police detachment.
Journalist Edmond Garley of Smile FM was beaten by the policemen while covering the 13 October riot that resulted from the death of a cyclist in the county’s administrative headquarters in Zwedru.
Garley had gone to the local police station to cover the arrest of several rioters, but was ordered by Detachment Commander Anthony Wilson to vacate the premises.
According to Garley, as he was walking out of the station, four police officers, allegedly acting on the orders of their commander, followed him and attacked him.
Garley said the policemen punched him in the jaw while shoving him to the ground, then kicked him and hit him twice on the chest with a heavy stick.
According to reports, the incident took place in the presence of the acting superintendent of Grand Gedeh County, Tally Dweh.
When contacted, Dweh confirmed that the journalist had been beaten.
Garley told CEMESP’s contact in Grand Gedeh County that he was beaten because the police did not want him to report on the inhumane treatment that was being meted out to the rioters taken to the police station.
He further stated that another police officer, identified only as “Beh”, called his radio station by mobile phone the next night, claiming that Garley was beaten because of what the caller referred to as “negative reports” about the police broadcast by the radio station.
Wilson, who denied that the broadcaster was beaten by his men, did confirm that he ordered the journalist to vacate the police station because, according to Wilson, on numerous occasions Smile FM covered stories involving the police in a “one-sided” fashion.
Meanwhile, Dweh has confirmed that the journalist filed a formal complaint with his office. He promises that a full investigation will be conducted into the matter.
