Women’s Situation Room (WSR) with support from Angie Brooks International Centre, holds a three-day Women Political Mediation and Peace Dialogue.
This program aims at promoting peaceful electoral environment and community security in Liberia.
Speaking Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Monrovia, journalist Marka Davis pointed out some challenges media institutions faced during the recent presidential elections including the safety of journalists.
He stated that journalists could not report freely in all environments considering potential safety risks.
He further named misinformation and disinformation as some of the major challenges journalists were confronted with during the elections.
Davies indicated that in most cases politicians want journalists to write news stories their way.
He cautioned fellow media practitioners to fix themselves in that aspect, adding that it reflects on the institution.
Davies called on Media institutions to conduct training and capacity building programs for journalists.
Police Spokesman Moses Carter said they are revisiting previous measures used to ensure successful elections.
According to him, they succeeded due to the strength of the joint security that helped during protests and other political activities that called for security intervention.
However, he said “the lack of manpower was one of the challenges we faced.”
Carter thanked Liberians for going to elections with peaceful mindsets, and also applauded political institutions for working with state security.
Meanwhile, he said the issue of misinformation and disinformation was on the high rate, indicating that a lot of people used social media to report false information.
But he hailed the media for working with the joint security throughout the process, terming it as a job well done.
For her part, Former Deputy Commissioner of the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS), Asatu Bah Kenneh said women in the security sector have been given less attention.
She further noted that women officers lacked assigned vehicles which became a major challenge in the discharge of duty. “We never had radio to communicate from long range and rapid response,” she stated.
She dated that officials were unarmed but had to carry ballot boxes on their heads at long distances which furthered put them at risks. Madam Kenneh indicated that officials overlapped functions, stating that they ran two shifts on a daily basis.
