Media Release
(Wednesday 15 July 2009)……The Press Union of Liberia is being urged to focus on national issues in this era of political and ideological transition of Liberia’s history.
A former official of the Union says at this critical juncture, one would expect that the umbrella outfit of the Liberian media proffers a disposition on the TRC report rather than dwelling on triviality.
The PUL former Assistant Secretary General Henry Flomo says the TRC report, among other issues, is cardinal. He says the Union remains a bastion and citadel of hope for the citizenry, thus a disposition like those of Carter Center and the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) could help shape public opinion.
He said the TRC worked too hard and needs traditional voices of tranquility, rule of law and democracy to buttress its recommendations and the way forward. “Taxpayers resources and time were spent for this historic process, thus it would further dent the country’s image should the report be undermined offensively”.
Mr. Flomo’s lament is rooted in a recent media statement from the Union criticizing media institutions that “rush” to report news that war crimes court advocate Mulbah Morlu met with US president Barack Obama during his visit to neighboring Ghana.
The PUL former official marvels why the Union would elect to squander valuable time on criticizing some of its members who were simply conventional. He said journalists the world over sometimes depend on credible sources to function unless those sources ruin themselves.
Mulbah Morlu, he said, has over the recent past won himself prominence and relevance in the lenses of the media as per the elements of news. He said should that stature lands itself corruptibility, then the character in question stands to be reduced in the public eye, not the media.
He said the story had all sides, with attributes, to include the US Embassy’s descending release partly on the basis of believability. In this case, he said, the assertion that the report should have been further investigated would have held water had the PUL remained neutral since no side has provided empirical evidence to rest the matter. “This matter might be relevance to some politicians but not media people. We can only provide them the stage for their claims and counter claims, leaving the public to judge”.
Henry Flomo
Former Assistant Secretary General/PUL
06558685, henry_flomo@yahoo.com ,Monrovia, Liberia