This trend continued until 1980, when a coup led by junior officers and enlisted men of the Liberian military toppled the TWP hegemony. Sgt. Samuel K. Doe and other coup leaders, who hailed from indigenous ethnic groups at the bottom of the social and economic ladder, announced that they had staged the coup to end corruption and the dictatorial one-party rule of the TWP.
For a while, it seemed there would be a flowering of free speech.
Journalists, students, and people who opposed the coup soon engaged in open criticism of the government. But, the military cracked down. The leading private newspaper in the country, The Daily Observer, was banned on at least two occasions, its offices burned and the entire editorial staff imprisoned.
Doe “won” an election in 1985 that opposition parties claimed was rigged. He had reneged on a promise to return to the barracks. Excesses of his regime included widespread killings of opponents and a clamp-down on free speech and critical reporting. All of these sparked an armed rebellion in December 1989. That rebellion soon turned into a full-scale civil war in which hundreds of thousands died and most of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed.
Rival warring factions killed many journalists: four from the national Liberian Broadcasting System (Charles Gbeyon, Tommy Raynes, Moses Washington and Sekou Kromah); a BBC Liberian Correspondent (John Vambo); and two visiting Nigerian journalist (Tayo Awotunsin and Krees Imobibie).
The war ended in 1997 with an election that brought a warlord, Charles Taylor, to power. President Jimmy Carter and other international observers witnessed the election and declared it generally free and fair. However, once in power, Taylor became a dictator just like his predecessor, Doe. He imprisoned opponents and journalists critical of his regime. Among those imprisoned by President Taylor in August 2000: Sierra Leonean producer, Sorious Samura; British director, David Barrie; British/South African cameraman, Timothy Lambon; and South African soundman, Gugulakhe Radebe, who told the BBC about their imprisonment and near-death ordeal under Taylor.
At the turn of the century, Taylor’s opponents launched an armed insurrection and Liberia again descended into war. The war ended when Taylor, pressured by the United States and other western
powers, was forced into exile in 2003. On April 26, 2012, the International Criminal Court located
14
Charles Taylor’s repressive regime made journalism a hazardous profession.