The Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL) on Friday, July 23, 2021 held a one-day editors’ forum on Personal Data Privacy, under the theme, “Personal Data Privacy in the Liberian Media”.
The one-day editors’ forum was held at Corina Hotel, with support from the Liberia Media Initiative and co-financed by the European Union.
In special remarks, the Vice President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Daniel Nyakonah, noted that Liberia has made significant progress in promoting free speech, but is yet to sign the Malabo Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection. According to him, the forum was in the right trajectory in bringing Liberia close to understanding the significance of the Convention and taking steps toward adopting the AU’s initiative.
For the Executive Director of the Center for Media Studies and Peace-building (CEMESP), Malcolm Joseph, who spoke on the topic, “Liberia and the Strive towards Enactment of Cyber security Legislation in Response to Data Compromise and Privacy Intrusion”, said “Everybody has right to protection of privacy in the face of intrusive nature of the work we do to sometimes unearth the truth at certain times when ethical standards becomes so difficult for us to apply. I am no proponent of subterfuge means of gathering content but sometimes we go the extra miles to get information. But let us face it beyond the confines of journalism, we can also become victims of the myriads of cyber or online insecurities in our private lives that have grave implication for our offline modes of operation. So I am a perfectionist to interment governance in the balance scheme of things of internet freedom.”
The overview of the workshop was made by the President of PAL, Othello Garblah, noting that the editors’ forum is one among five forums to be held with various stakeholders on the topic.
The forum had two main speakers: Cllr. D. Adolphus Karnuah of the Ministry of Justice and Bai G. Best, Managing Editor of the Daily Observer. The Cllr. Karnuah spoke on Personal Data Privacy and the Liberian Law while Best spoke on Data Privacy and the Media.
The two speakers were unanimous in noting that there is no clear law on the topic under discussion, even though portions of the 1986 Constitution and the Penal Law provided an insight on the topic.
The forum, which brought together editors from about 16 print media houses, concluded with a Personal Experience Sharing on Data Privacy in the media, where the general body suggested a number of recommendations in protecting personal data, especially from a media perspective.