The legal and regulatory frameworks governing the media are generally moribund and not on par with international best practice, though efforts have been underway in the last twenty four months to review and reform the country’s media laws and policies to suit international standards. This effort has been led by the Partnership for Media and Conflict Prevention in West Africa.

Furthermore, the absence of a national communication policy has rather stilted the flow of information from government to the media, and the media to the public. The government Ministry of Information is under resourced and lacks the technical capacity to perform a number of its core functions. There’s a conflict of function between some functionaries dealing with the media namely the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication and the recently established Liberia Telecommunication Authority.

As in their current form, statutes governing the media and access to information and freedom of expression are tilted toward state control and have rendered the media vulnerable to censorship, interference, threats and intimidation in the past.

They have in other words provided reprieve for state officials and their surrogates to carry out arbitrary actions against the media, which has had serious implications for open, transparent and accountable administration of public trust over decades. Until quite recently, media freedom has been severely restricted and journalists have practiced under series of intolerable conditions and regimes.

While these continued over the decade, it was only in 2004 that efforts were started to comprehensively review the legal framework governing the media in the view of conducting a holistic reform. Under the direction of the Partnership for Media and Conflict Prevention in West Africa, local efforts were harnessed amongst the relevant stakeholder groups including MICAT to better articulate and define a new media policy and legal framework through a comprehensive and consultative legal and institutional reform process. These processes sought to gather and codify the laws and statutes used in regulating the media to engender a free and conducive environment.

Subsequently in October of 2004, a National Conference on Media Law and Policy Reform was convened in Liberia. The process of media reform sought to ensure that legal and institutional framework for control and regulation of the media conform to international standards on freedom of expression. The initiative led to the drafting of two bills: Freedom of Information Act and a Broadcast Regulatory Act.

A third law to transform the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) from a State broadcaster to a Public Service Broadcaster had already been commissioned by the USAID funded Liberia Transitional Initiative and was invited for validation by the Media Law Reform Working Group, bringing the bills to three.

All three bills have been introduced in Parliament and public hearings to review and debate the draft bills have been held. The media community and partners will await recommendation of the joint committees of the House and Senate.

For further information the Media Reform Process contact Mr. Malcolm Joseph (malcolmjoseph2000@yahoo.com) & Mr. Edetean Ojo (edet@mediarightsagenda.org).