However, the full exercise of these rights has been undermined by a flurry of criminal libel and civil libel suits that have resulted in excessively prohibitive judgments. Over the past few five years, Liberia’s press freedom landscape has consistently been rated as “partly free” in the RSF Press Freedom Index due to these press freedom violations and the difficult environment under which the media works. Before leaving office, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attempted to make some amends by taking steps to get criminal libel scrapped from the statutes. The country will be equipping itself with a set of progressive press freedom laws if it successfully repeals criminal libel. Such a prospect, will be a major boost to press freedom in the country.

Source: GNN Liberia February 22, 2018 23:03 UTC