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afrol.com, 21 August - Four foreign journalist, two British, one Sierra Leonean and one South African , reportedly were arrested in Monrovia on 18 August and are now being charged with "clandestine activity" against Liberia. There present whereabouts are uncertain, but they were to appear before a Monrovia court today. According to information obtained by the International Press Institute's (IPI), Britons David Barrie and Timothy Lambon, South African Gugulakhe Radebe and Sierra Leonean Somoura Sorious were arrested in their hotel rooms in Monrovia on Friday. In a statement released on Saturday, Liberian Justice Minister Eddington Varmah said the four were arrested for carrying out "acts against the security of the state." In addition, he claimed that their "clandestine activity" was aimed at "providing assistance to foreign powers," but did not provide details of the charges. IPI was told that they were to appear before a court today, 21 August. The journalists, all with Insight News Television, had been in Liberia for three weeks shooting a documentary series for the London-based Channel 4. A spokesperson for Channel 4 said the four had been engaged in legitimate journalistic activities and that the crew had obtained written permission to film from the Ministry of Information. The arrests are especially worrying taken against the backdrop of the history of government action against the media in Liberia. Several persons suspected of being critical of the government have in the past disappeared. In addition, security officials have reportedly been using arrests and interrogations as a way to silence critical voices. Following the 1997 elections, The New Democrat newspaper, whose offices were burned down in 1996, was refused a permit to re-start publication. In July 2000, the government effectively stopped production of the paper again by barring all advertising in its pages. The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, has strongly condemned the arrest of the four TV journalists. IPI regards their arrests as a violation of everyone’s right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Liberia is a signatory of the African Charter on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.
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