(MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA and Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) alert: (MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert: On 23 February 2004, Meeky Mckay, managing editor and sales manager of “Heritage” newspaper, and journalist Homammed Kanneh were arrested on orders of the Monrovia City Court for a story […]
(MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA and Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) alert:
(MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:
On 23 February 2004, Meeky Mckay, managing editor and sales manager of “Heritage” newspaper, and journalist Homammed Kanneh were arrested on orders of the Monrovia City Court for a story which appeared in the newspaper’s 16 February edition.
According to information received from MFWA-Liberia sources, the newspaper’s 16 February edition carried a lewd front page story with the headline, “For US$400.00 Liberian Girls have Sex with Dogs”. The newspaper attributed the story to National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA) Speaker George Dweh, who is alleged to have said he saw a video in Europe in which Liberian girls were having sex with dogs for money. Dweh has denied the newspaper’s claims, which he described as “very irresponsible.”
Following publication of the story, which was illustrated by a cartoon, vendors and other individuals reportedly made photocopies of the illustration and used it to ridicule women. As a result, on 19 February, a group of women staged a protest march to the Press Union of Liberia’s (PUL) offices in Monrovia, demanding the newspaper’s expulsion from the PUL. The PUL had earlier called on the newspaper’s management to issue a public apology. The “Heritage” complied with the PUL’s request.
The government, however, filed a complaint which led to the court order for the arrest and detention of Mckay and Kanneh. They are being charged with disseminating obscene material.
According to Information Minister C. William-Allen, the matter will be further investigated and the newspaper may face legal action. Dweh also mandated the NTLA’s Committee on Information and the Judiciary to investigate the newspaper.
**MISA and the MFWA, as a joint activity, will henceforth issue alerts, statements and appeals to highlight media freedom and wider human rights violations in West Africa. See www.misa.org and www.mediafoundationwa.org for more information**
