‘Oppressed Turns Oppressor’ - Liberian government shuts down radio station

[geronl]

‘Oppressed Turns Oppressor’

-Benoni Urey Terms Ellen; Raises Alarm Over President’s Crackdown on Free Speech, Press


^{SOURCE: Daily Observer, Liberia}

“President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who for over 35 years raised her voice against past governments while agitating against societal ills that kept the Liberian masses marginalized for decades, is gradually turning into a monster that might very soon become uncontrollable,” opposition political leader, Benoni Urey has declared.

Mr. Urey stated that the President, who was oppressed by past regimes, has herself, turned an oppressor and is engaging in tactics to silence opposition political leaders who are critical of her government.

An outraged Urey was addressing a press conference in Monrovia hours after his media house, Sarafina Ventures Incorporated (SVI), which operates Love TV and LIB 24 FM 105.1, was summarily closed down by the Liberian government on Saturday, August 13.
Government said Mr. Urey’s media house was operating “illegally.”

“The prominence gained during her days of activism,” said Mr. Urey, who is head of the opposition All Liberian Party, “landed her the Liberian presidency.”

Urey believes that the President needs to live by those tenets for which she advocated, rather than deviating from them.

“It is a shame that the President who for so many years fought for free speech and press is the same one that is fighting against it,” he told the press conference last Saturday, adding that the President does not care anymore and [feels she] can do anything considering that her tenure has almost ended. So she wants to jeopardize Liberia’s young democracy and relative peace enjoyed over the past few years.

excerpted

http://www.liberianobserver.com/news/%E2%80%98oppressed-turns-oppressor%E2%80%99

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The shutting down of the radio station has reminded people of the bad old days

[geronl]

Ellen’s Twilight: A Time for Evenhandedness and Constitutional Tolerance

An editorial accompanying the article.

http://www.liberianobserver.com/editorials/ellen%E2%80%99s-twilight-time-evenhandedness-and-constitutional-tolerance

[Oceander]

Sounds like a standard-issue liberal.  Or a Trumpkin.

[Cripplecreek]

Things can turn quickly over there and Liberia has plenty of practice with civil war and brutality.

[Oceander]

Things can turn quickly over there and Liberia has plenty of practice with civil war and brutality.

Damn!  That's a lot of brass lying around.

[geronl]

Things can turn quickly over there and Liberia has plenty of practice with civil war and brutality.

It's been over twelve years, it is past time for them and everyone to stop using it as a crutch to explain away corruption and incompetence.

[geronl]

Damn!  That's a lot of brass lying around.

It's all been picked up and sold by now, but there are still mining concessions available for the right bribes apparently. I think the UK needs to look into these detailed allegations from Global Witness about Sable Mining paying as much as $950,000 in bribes for a mining concession. The only officials being pressured to step down are the unelected chairman of the ruling party and the opposition party Speaker of the House. If it stopped there, those guys would be sacrificial lambs to protect high officials in the government.

This radio station was apparently shut down because a host wondered out loud of "Big Boy 1" in the bribery accounts is the President herself.

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Corruption is what keeps third world countries third world.