The Liberian presidency, headed by Joseph N. Boakai, has enjoyed regular full coverage by Executive Mansion assigned reporters, but this may soon be short-lived as several reporters assigned there are threatening a media blackout on the presidency and the Executive Mansiondue to what they term the consistent and persistent humiliation and the lack of cooperation of PresidentialPress Secretary, Kula Fofana.
The assigned Executive Mansion reporters are the conglomerate of print, electronic, and online media reporters duly assigned to cover the activities of the Mansion and the presidency for their news outlets.
Even though it is said that in every working environment peace, good human relationship and cooperation should be the hallmark of daily routine, Kula Fofana stands accused of being a complete opposite, as she is reportedly said to always exhibit egotistic postures and a stingy disposition.
In a haunting dirge tone, a bevy of Executive Mansion reporters, in whose faces were the evidence of Press Secretary Fofana’s marginalization, alleged that Fofana is dictatorial and money-driven, and that she only concerns herself with what she can benefit from and not what can benefit assigned reporters at the Mansion.
“When we went with the President to Bomi County to provide coverage, while coming back our bus suffered a punctured tyre. Kula did not get down from her car to inquire what happened; she abandoned us and came to town,” the reporters recalled the press secretary’s inhume deportment toward them. “We stayed there starving until late evening hours when a bus came for us. We were weary and sleepy.”
The Presidential Press Secretary’s action has fueled dissatisfaction and resentment among reporters, causing several of them to temporarily suspend their service from covering the presidency.
The “Every Friday” regular press briefing at the Executive Mansion, which was always flooded with the presence of reporters, is now a ghost event, with only a few reporters in attendance.
“Press Secretary Kula Fofana obtained a bachelor’sdegree in mass communication, but she did not practice mainstream journalism; as a result, she is not savvy with media relations, and she is not willing to take instruction from veteran and active journalists nor communication experts within her inner orbit. She is temperate and inscrutable – hard to manage and hard to interpret. As a result, she lacks the jargon of mainstream journalism.
“She does not laisse with those she met in office to know how reporters are treated on the field and on the ground of the Executive Mansion during coverage, because she feels she is more educated and she is an immediate relative to the First Lady,” angry reporters and some of her workmates told the Hot Pepper.
“Her actions warrant the President’s media blackout to the public as reporters are shying away from providing the presidency coverage on a daily basis.
“She does not recognize our leadership and she cannot cooperate with us,” one of the reporters said. “When we go on the field to provide coverage for the President, she only cares for the Executive Mansion’s Facebook Page, and ignores the reporters’ presence as if the Executive Mansion’s Facebook page is the only media channel that covers the President.”
According to the reporters, during the recent graduation of Liberia Maritime Institute, Press Secretary Fofanaexpressed concern about the Mansion’s Facebook page and did not associate herself with its reporters, a situation that frustrated them in Marshall, Margibi County, and caused them to come home without a dime.
However, a shocking and frustrating news, again, of the Presidential Press Secretary’s devilish habit was concerned Executive Mansion reporters coveringPresident Boakai’s three-day cabinet treat without gratuity.
According to media gurus, President Boakai misplaced Kula Fofana, observing that the Presidential Press Secretary position is for a veteran and an active journalist, or communication expert. They noted that Kula Fofana is not savvy to media relations, strangulating reporters covering the presidency on a regular basis.
From May 23—25, 2024, journalists provided coverage for the President’s first Cabinet Retreat at the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Ministerial Complex without Press Secretary Fofana’s recognition of their services that publicized the government’s agenda. Fofana left unceremoniously during the closure of the retreat.
“Since Kula took over, providing coverage for the presidency is like covering the graveyard – you go clean and come clean,” the disenchanted reporters said at the Ministerial Complex after being deserted by Press Secretary Fofana. At the second day closure of the retreat, aggrieved reporters of the Executive Mansion complained about Press Secretary Fofana’s bad human relationship to Information Minister, J. Matthew Piah, who promised to meet her and to resolve the standoff between both parties, observing that Minister Piah served as press secretary with flexibility—during President Ellen Johnson-Sirlreaf’s second term, 2011—2017.