Gov’t, Private Sector, Weaken Media’s Proper Function; Comm. Nagbe Tells Inducted Executive Mansion Media Leadership
The parlance, “Turtle wants to box but has no hand,” is being manifested as a hindrance for the proper functioning of the media, due to the failure of the government and private sector to advertise in the print and electronic media and make financial settlement.
“Why the media in Liberia struggle? Journalists are the least paid professionals in the society. Due to this, people are using the media as a stepping stone,” Liberia Maritime Commissioner Lenn Eugene Nagbe said, blaming government institutions and the private sector for turning their back on the media.
Considering the pivotal role of a journalist worldwide, he said that without a free, fair and transparent media there would be no democratic country, noting that the media is consequential to the existence of democracy.
Although the media serves as a conduit between the governed and the government, in Liberia its practitioners are least paid and devalued as compared to any other profession.
“Are media professionals being paid concomitantly as compared to lawyers, bankers? No,” the commissioner asked and answered, nodding his head and looking at media practitioners in whose faces where the evidence of financial marginalization.
The Maritime boss, who served as guest speaker of the induction ceremony of the Executive Mansion’s elected media officers, said that the media are the mirrors of the society, observing that it provides the examination of the society and is considered as the fourth estate.
“If the media is a watchdog for society, then it must be equipped because the society depends on it,” he noted.
He congratulated the Chairman-elect and his team for the election, and said, “You have a very difficult task ahead of you. The outgoing President, Dennise Nimpson, spoke and mentioned some of the difficulties and some actions she took to address the difficulty. You and your team build up where she stopped.”
Interacting with young professionals on GSA Road about who is responsible for media institutions and practitioners struggling to survive, he quoted one of the young guys as saying it is government because it is not paying for advertisements.
“If institutions of the government are not paying for advertisements, then it is true that government is a key contribution to the problem of lack of logistics and funding in the private media,” he said, diagnosing that government plays a major role in the private media sector’s funding. He blamed the business community and the private sector for not advertising in the media.
Inducting the officials into office, the Press Union of Liberia’s officer charged them to govern properly, and told the Presidential Press Secretary’s office to be flexible, noting that if the assigned reporters serve the President for six years and their lives remain the same Press Secretary Solo Kelgbeh would be poorly remembered by them and by the media landscape.
Those inaugurated to stir the affairs of assigned reporters at the mansion are Godfred Badu Quansah, Chairman; Anthony Jiffan, Co-Chairman; Alvin Worzi, Secretary General; Matthew Jacobs, Assistant Secretary; Rachel G. Kollie, Financial Secretary; and Ojuku Silver-tonuge Kangar, Jr., Chaplain General.
In his inaugural speech, Chairman Quansah promised to reconcile and revamp the entity, establish a stronger relationship with the Executive and the assigned independent media team, and so on.
The Publisher of the Hot Pepper Newspaper, veteran journalist Philipbert Browne, urged the elected officials and others to focus and do the job, dispelling the rumor that journalism is a poor profession as is noted by Liberians.
“I who standing here, I am not a poor journalist. We held microphones and pointed it at newsmakers like you do,” Browne said. “Today, I have reached my peak, and you don’t expect me to show microphone to anyone because I am of age.”
Several people made remarks, including the out-going President of the Executive Mansion Press Corps, Dennise Nimpson, Reporters Association Secretary General, among others.