Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
Monrovia – In the wake of the announced boycott by the management of Punch FM/TV of President George Weah’s called meeting with executives of the Liberian media, several famous journalists including veteran talk radio host T-Max Jlateh of Sky FM; prolific writer and editor Rodney Sieh of FrontPageAfrica; and controversial political commentator Henry Pedro Costa have said they too will snub the Liberian leader’s call to meet with media people.
On Thursday, Punch FM/TV, Online Service through its management team, the One Media Incorporated, announced that it would boycott a meeting called by Liberian president George Weah inviting media executives to confer with him on today Friday, 28 December 2018.
The One Media Incorporated emphatically declared that it would not attend or be represented in any way at the president’s called meeting with media practitioners, indicating that it was doing so in direct protest to the Weah-led government’s undeserved attacks on the Liberian media and by extension an undemocratic onslaught on the freedom of the press and free speech.
The Punch FM/TV, Online Service statement comes at the heels of multiple attacks from government officials against journalists in the country, in the wake of Minister of Information Lenn Eugene Nagbe slamming the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), after the Union condemned recent waves of threats emanating from government against the media, with the Nagbe describing the PUL as a “useless” entity that does not know its function.
Additionally, in reaction to a FronPageAfrica report, Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Tweah recently threatened that he would “weaponize” crusaders of the CDC to deal with what he calls “mistruth and falsehood” in the media.
Also, the closest cabinet minister to the Liberian leader and President Weah’s chief of office staff, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill characterized FronPageAfrica and the Liberian media as “criminal entities that are bent on tarnishing the reputations of people.”
But in its statement Punch FM/TV, Online Service insisted that it will not sit in the same room to talk with a president who has remained conspicuously quiet on attacks meted out against journalists and media institutions, and in some instances, where some of these very attacks were incited by inflammatory and derogatory comments against the media from the president himself, adding that doing so “would mean sanctioning the Weah administration’s ‘war against the free press,’ which we believe is a clever but cruel attempt aimed at quashing critical views.”
Instead, the Punch FM/TV, Online Service management team proposed that President Weah sets up a meeting with his officials, some of whom One Media Incorporated said are “attacking the media and threatening to “weaponize” his political party zealots and extremists of the Congress for Democratic Change to go after journalists.”
Howbeit, Jlateh, Sieh and Costa have all concurred with Punch FM/TV, Online Service, with the trio while appearing on the Costa Show aired on Roots 102.7 FM earlier today, separately stating that they too would not sit with President Weah at today’s scheduled meeting.
