The Inquirer Newspaper seems to be newest target of the Independent National Human Rights Commissioner, Mohammed Fahnbulleh, as amidst his threats yesterday through text messages against the institution, he has ran to the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) with a complaint against its management.
Fahnbulleh, who is apparently desperate and jumps at every comment instead of exonerating himself from allegations levied against him as if he is the lone commissioner at the INCHR, is accusing the paper of being used by what he termed as his ‘opponents’ in the internal wrangling at the INCHR since June.
While it is true that this paper has been delving into the internal conflict at the INCHR mixed in Fahnbulleh’s own alleged sexual allegations, the information had balanced as all sides in the conflict with all parties or individuals previously mentioned providing documentary evidences for publication including the very Fahnbulleh who had requested that the paper provides him the audio conversation between his accuser and the reporter so that he seeks legal redress; unfortunately, due to her ethics, the Managing Editor did not record any conversation during that investigation with his accuser.
Instead, Fahnbulleh writes the PUL and accuses the Acting Managing Editor, C. Winnie Saywah-Jimmy, of being a ‘personal friend to just two of ‘Our’ adversaries and collaborating to publish damaging and one-sided stories purposely to the advantage of her friends.
Fahnbulleh who was commissioned as a human rights officer having threatened decisive action against Madam Saywah-Jimmy for her failure to meet with him privately for the past two days informed the PUL that the Inquirer boss ignored the ABC and all other ethical standards required of a professional journalist.
See on page… for the rest of the exchanges including his insinuation to the PUL while the Inquirer chief was at the verge of formally complaining him to the INCHR and copying the Liberia National Bar Association and the Press Union of Liberia as well as the Female Journalists Association of Liberia, Fahnbulleh.
However, the fallout between Madam Saywah-Jimmy and Fahnbulleh comes after the Inquirer published a story captioned: “OHCHR In US$4M Mismanagement Web? …As INCHR Fmr. Executive Director Makes Startling Revelations,” in which a former Executive Director of the Commission accused Fahnbulleh of working with the OHCHR to undermine the independence of the Commission.
“I received two communications from a source within the INCHR; a letter written by Mr. Uchenna Emelonye to Cllr. Dempster Brown, a worded communication written by the former Executive Director of the Commission, Mr. Heron Gbidi,” Madam Saywah Jimmy said furiously.
“In the letter to Cllr. Brown, the OHCHR boss informed him that two commissioners of the INCHR, Mr. Pindarous Allison and Mr. Mohammed Fahnbulleh told him (Uchenna) that Cllr. Brown had discussed with the Board of Commissioners that he (Uchenna) was lobbying with the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights to remove him (Cllr. Brown) as chairperson of the commission; and a communication from a former staff of the INCHR,” the Inquirer boss said.
Meanwhile, she stated that several attempts were made over the weekend and on Monday to get Fahnbulleh’s side of the story, he declined to give any appropriate response but told her further that it was unethical to just call an accused as wanting his side of a story and if she had published the story without his side he would have taken a resort.
“We had the information since Friday of last week and wanted to corroborate the stories before publishing, as it is a media best practice and it was not based upon his threats or wish therefore we suspended the publication so that we could get his side along with the OHCHR,” Madam Jimmy told reporters at her office.
“As a professional, we always do due diligence to my stories before publishing them. We have never published a story that was not properly cross-checked or corroborated. For the record, we called Fahnbulleh. He did not deny or confirm the information, but his only disappointment is that we published the story instead of withholding it. According to him, he called the OHCHR chief who said he does not speak to journalists explaining that because he was an ambassador there will be bureaucracy in getting him to speak yet when he Fahnbulleh was given the opportunity to say what he knows about the allegations levied by the former ED, he failed to provide clarity on the relationship between the two Commissions,” she explained.
“We sent a reporter to Mr. Fahnbulleh’s office, but he only said that people are targeting him for his stance on corruption. And now here he is texting and threatening me, saying that he will decide his next action against me. This is something that we too will not overlook,” Madam Saywah-Jimmy pointed out.
Here are extracts of Fahnbulleh’s text to Madam Jimmy:
“If you are not available to talk, please let me know and I can file my complaint against you to the Press Union of Liberia. I just spoke with Daniel, your vice president about this. So, whether you call it a threat that’s fine. But if I don’t hear from you, I will definitely complain you.”
“If you are not available to talk, pls let me know now and I can file my complaint against you to the Press union. I just spoke with Daniel your Vice President about this. So, whether you call it threat, that’s fine. But if don’t hear from you, I will definitely complain you.”
“You send a man here and refused to mention what I said in response and what the Cllr. Brown said also, but you intentionally wrote a one-sided story support your Friend Teh- Pour. This story is from him and not Herron. Herron never made any post on his Facebook page on July 27 as claimed in your story Winnie. I challenge you to share the post.”
“Dempster Brown told you reporter yesterday to hold on till Friday because he needed to understand what this was all about, again, you never mention it. Why will you allowed yourself and the institution my good friend and class mate build image to spill like this?” Anyone reading the story will tell it is all propaganda and unbalanced.”
Madam Saywah-Jimmy said, “Fahnbulleh should understand that we do not work for the INCHR or Cllr. Dempster to wait on their instructions as to what story to run or when. That information has been on our news desk for almost five days and we called everyone concerned, but he was only interested in me suppressing the story which, from my over 20 years of media practice is on professional and unethical.”
“We challenge Fahnbulleh to tell us if he too has not given us documents with allegations in order to exonerate himself from their internal wrangling or at that time we were in adherence to the ABC and as well as following journalistic ethics he as a commissioner is aware of that he has decided to place under a microscope,” she stated.
She continued, “We are not taking his threats lightly. This is a country where people get missing and are found in the streets dead of mysterious circumstances. We work here daily from 9am to 11pm and sometimes 12-1am. Who knows the “Next Action” of the angry commissioner?”
The stern-face media manager said if we, as an institution, are unsatisfied with how the matter is handled at the PUL, we will formally complain Fahnbulleh to the INCHR, the Liberia National Bar Association and the Office of the President pointing out, “This man is in authority and my life cannot be at risk while trying to do my job.”
She observed that Comm. Fahnbulleh wants to use his position and his ties with the powers that be to strangulate the media reiterating, “This is not about us. It is about all journalists in and out of Liberia who are threatened, harassed, tortured or even killed in the discharge of their duties and this institution will not recant any information that none of those accused can disprove by evidence.”
