Liberia News:‘WE’VE BETRAYED OUR FOUNDERS’

Monrovia-May-06-2024-TNR:The Acting President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) says it is high time members of the Union rekindled their thoughts, forget the past and turn a new page towards unity and oneness as a way of battling the nightmare that is eroding the sanity and fabric of the organization. “We are nearly sixty years in existence. What can we show as a Union founded 1964; still in a rented structure and about to be evicted. This institution was founded on a very good purpose, but today we have betrayed our founders,” Mr. Akoi Basay told his colleagues at events marking World Press Freedom Day. He furthered, “It is time to rekindle our thoughts, forget the past and let turn a new page for oneness in an effort to battling this nightmare call environmental crisis.” He called members of the PUL to recreate their environment by considering the Union above all over personal/self-interest. He added, “Let this be new beginning for the Union to again be that voice that everyone look up to.” Basay noted, “We are here in observance of the World Press Freedom Day, a day the United Nations General Assembly declared to be celebrated each year to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the rights to freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration.” “The theme of this 2024 World Press Freedom Day, “Journalism in the face of Environmental Crisis,” signifies how important the issue of global warming has become to the world and underlines the many challenges it poses, that we journalists must stand to help enlarge the scope of awareness,” he added. According to the PUL Acting President, it is very vital, that the media increase its focus on the crisis that the environment is confronted with through providing education on how we can preserved the world from this crisis. He reminded members of the media that achieving this will require the concerted efforts of national government, development partners, and the donor community to redirect huge support to the Liberia Media to facilitate consistent engagement. “It is also important for us, the media, to intensify measures intended to curb the crisis our environments are faced with in order to have it preserved and protected by increasing responsiveness,” Mr. Basay noted. He furthered, “It is to our understanding that the Liberian media is polarized and hugely divided, something which I think serves as an interference in the process of putting up a robust and progressive fight against the crisis our environment is challenged with today.” “Let this be a clarion call that, if we must create a better environment for the public to live peacefully and healthily, it must begin with us media doing what we know best to ensure this,” the PUL Acting President added. Among other things, Mr. Basay wondered, “As the watchdog of the society and pacesetters on whom the public rely for setting agendas, if our internal environment is not conducive, how do we envision the larger environment to become? I’m speaking figuratively about the PUL’s internal crisis.” Concluding, the Acting PUL boss stressed that the media cannot be confronted with itself and think they are going to help transform this nation adding, “We are not doing ourselves any good, and posterity is indeed going to judge us.”