Liberian newspaper shut over government corruption report

One of Liberia’s leading
local daily newspapers has been shut down
after its publisher was jailed for libel over a
report about government corruption, its
staff told AFP on Tuesday.
Rodney Sieh, managing director of
Frontpage Africa, was taken into custody on
Wednesday last week following a Supreme
Court ruling that the paper should pay US $
1.6 million (1.2 million euros) for libelling
former agriculture minister J. Chris Toe.
The court ordered that the paper be closed
down until the damages are paid in full.
“Law enforcement officers closed our
offices on Friday. So I will say that today
makes it two days since we stopped
publishing,” Wade Williams, one of the
paper’s editors, told AFP.
“The workers have all stopped coming to
work because the building was locked by
the court.”
Toe successfully sued the paper after Sieh
wrote a story in 2009 accusing the minister
of stealing government funds.
Williams said Sieh had been on hunger
strike since his arrest on Wednesday last
week.
“He has not been eating at all. People are
talking to him to eat but he has categorically
refused to do so. We are very worried
because his condition is getting worse by
the day,” Williams said.
Frontpage has been vociferous in its
criticism of the government of President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in recent years.
Sieh is expected to remain incarcerated until
he pays the damages or Sirleaf intervenes.