PRESS RELEASE – University of Massachusetts Boston

Media in Liberia Conference, April 7 and 8, 2006

Monday, April 03, 2006

Center for Democracy and Development

McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies

University of Massachusetts Boston

Media in Liberia Conference, April 7 and 8, 2006 - Very few countries in history have suffered as much devastation as Liberia during its recent civil war. One observer wrote that the country was pillaged ‘down to the studs in the walls’. A turning point came in January of this year when Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President, making her the first female head-of-state in Africa. Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf has vowed to restore order to the country and to do whatever is necessary to get the economy back on track. Another turning point came last week with the arrest of former President Charles Taylor (one of the main architects of Liberia’s misery) and his delivery to a war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone.

Certainly the media can play an enormous—and necessary—role in the rebuilding of Liberia. Whether it is newspaper, radio station or web-site the role of the media as information providers, as watchdogs and as educators has never been more critical.

The Center for Democracy and Development is pleased to host a distinguished group of twenty present and former Liberian media professionals with ties both to Liberia and the United States. The group, including editors, writers, educators are coming together to discuss ways that Liberians in the Diaspora can best support those courageous new media professionals just now emerging in Liberia with the fresh hope of the peace process and Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s new government.

The conference will inaugurate a dialogue between U.S. and Liberian media on the real meaning of ‘media independence’, the proper role of the journalist, and the essentials of ‘professional media management’. Our hope, of course, is that this effort will help initiate—and underpin—a new, healthy, viable Liberian democracy.

For more information contact:

Michael Keating Margery O’Donnell

Visiting Fellow Project Administrator

Michael.keating@umb.edu Margery.odonnell@umb.edu