Is the Legislature a Secret Society?

New Democrat (Monrovia)

4 June 2011

editorial

The orders from the Speaker of the House of Representatives to violently seize cameras of journalists covering the Legislature, is far from unique since the shaky experiment with democracy began.

That a country subjected to violence, and immune from it, for decades can easily come to terms with civility is difficult. Many of those in power have been accustomed to violence and its rewards. Impunity reigns as violence is justified.

But it is unfortunate and regrettable that violence against journalists is hailing from the leader of the House of Representatives, for it indicates how grossly functions and roles are being misunderstood.

Public officials and public figures have not understood the fact that their roles are within the public domain, and that in public places, or even in private ones, their defenses against having actions recorded or documented cannot stand. The public has the right to know, and no law shall be made against this, as the constitution reminds us. Only the courts, not brute force as the Speaker has shown, can be the final judge.

The journalists, some from this paper, were covering an open proceeding of the Representatives, not a secret society meeting. When their cameras were positioned, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, not an illiterate policeman, angrily ordered them seized.

Did he fully grasp the nature of his decision that portrayed him as a vigilante, and not a high-ranking politician responsible for upholding the law?

But this act of unwarranted and debased violence is not the first display of brute force from such an official. His predecessor is on record for physically assaulting a journalist who attempted photographing him in a public place.

Violent protests from public officials, including judges and lawyers, against being recorded or photographed in line with their official duties suggest the need for some form of education.

Public officials find pleasure in calling and financing ‘major press conferences’ to suit their desires, but when they are probed in the media, they draw their swords.

That the makers of the law in particular, expected to defend the law, have shown such disdain is symptomatic of the general trend in the society.

Those who want to be out of the public limelight have a simple choice: stay home and take care of the grand children. If not, the public has the right to know because as a public official, one’s activities and decisions affect the public. One is a custodian of the public trust and, therefore the property of the public.

We believe that for the current trend to be reversed, some form of redress on the part of the victim and punishment for the offending official is needed.

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