Liberia stifles Ebola media coverage
WHO doubts officially reported decline in cases
Jerome R. Corsi
WND.com
Oct. 8, 2014
NEW YORK – Liberia is preventing journalists from reporting Ebola-related stories from health care centers in the country and from interviewing Liberians in regions affected by the disease unless they obtain written permission from the government.
The news came as the World Health Organization issued a statement warning that the officially reported decline in new cases in Liberia over the past three weeks “is unlikely to be genuine,” because problems with data gathering continue.
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Monrovia in collaboration with the Ministry of Information has imposed the new restrictions on Ebola coverage by local and international journalists, according to news reports in Liberia.
Bill K. Jarkloh, associate editor of the Analyst Newspaper in Liberia and a media trainer of the Liberian Media Center, asserted the policy violates the Liberian constitution.
He called on media to resist this “ugly restriction.”
“If the media, especially the Press Union of Liberia and its auxiliaries, buy this restriction from the government during this crucial time when the media must be [more] free than ever to monitor the performances of state actors including medical practitioners at Ebola centers, more draconian restrictions will follow,” he said.
Meanwhile, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. died Wednesday morning. Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, is believed to have contracted the virus in Liberia while taking an ill neighbor to the hospital. He flew to the U.S. Sept. 19 and had been at a Dallas hospital since Sept. 26.
WHO said in an Ebola situation report Wednesday the underreporting of Ebola cases in Liberia “reflects a deterioration in the ability of overwhelmed responders to record accurate epidemiological data.”
“It is clear from field reports and first responders that EVD cases are being underreported from several key locations, and laboratory data that have not yet been integrated into official estimates indicate an increase in the number of new cases in Liberia,” WHO said.
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