Troubled by Journalists’ Arrest, PUL Condemns Judicial Harassment of Journalists in RiverCess County

Monrovia, Liberia-Monday, August 18, 2025-The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has strongly condemned what it describes as a coordinated legal campaign targeting journalists Eric Opa Doue and Methuselah Gaye in River Cess County. According to the Apex media body, the two reporters were arrested and detained under separate but related warrants for “Criminal Contempt of Court” and “Criminal Coercion,” stemming from a report that linked a local magistrate court to bribery in the release of a police officer allegedly involved in a narcotics case. The journalists later retracted the officer’s name after discovering the actual suspect was someone else, yet they continue to face judicial intimidation cum harassment.

The Union expressed its concern relative to the huge bail imposed—60,000 Liberian Dollars and the refusal of a public defender to represent the journalists. Methuselah Gaye was able to post bail, but Eric Opa Doue remained in detention for an additional day before he was released. The PUL denounced these actions as punitive and harmful to press freedom, especially in leeward counties like River Cess where journalists already face systemic challenges as well as political interference.

Calling the ongoing legal actions a blatant abuse of judicial power, PUL President Julius Kanubah emphasized that such practices contradict Liberia’s press freedom commitments under the Kamara Abdullah Kamara Act and the Table Mountain Declaration.

Hence, the Union is demanding the immediate dropping of all charges and urged that any complaints against journalists be addressed through lawful and appropriate channels—not through the weaponization of the judicial system against the media.

The PUL release then concluded “Judicial actors must uphold due process, safeguard freedom of expression, and respect the press as an essential pillar of Liberia’s democracy.”

Please see below the attached PUL Release…