-For Threatening Legislative Reporters
(26 November 2025): The Press Union of Liberia believes verbal threats by the Speaker of the House of Representatives ‘to deal with journalists’ by ‘grabbing’ and ‘jailing’ them are yet another frightening manifestation of the steadily increasing hostility towards journalists in Liberia.
The Union is alarmed by the threats from Speaker Richard Koon, who on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, disparagingly warned journalists covering the House of Representatives against recording communicative exchanges in the Chamber in the absence of official plenary session.
“To the press, this session is not legal yet. Anything you record from here, we will deal with you. This session is not legal yet until we get quorum. We didn’t ask your not to be doing your recording while we’re doing our talking oooo. Your take anything from here, when we grab your, when we don’t put your in jail, your mon [should] change my name. This session must be legal by quorum. This joke where we’re joking here, your record now to start talking nonsense; when we catch your, your will not believe it,” warned Speaker Koon.
The threats by Speaker Koon signal a clearly dangerous mindset by a certain public official of his kind to weaponize state power by intimidating, harassing and molesting journalists while restricting the right of the public to know and have access to information.
Speaker Koon must be told that every open session in the Chamber of the House of Representatives bears the nature of privileged information, legally allowing journalistic coverage under Article 15 of the Constitution of Liberia, which guarantees freedom of the press, with no limitation on the public right to be informed about the government and its functionaries.
While it remains to be determined what motivated the Speaker’s threats, it is clear that certain public officials remain tied to employing old authoritarian tactics in their attempt to return Liberia to the dark old days of silencing the press to enhance the culture of secrecy and unaccountability.
In the wake of the alarming threat, PUL President Julius Kanubah, on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, held in-person meetings with the Office of the Speaker through the Media Adviser, Vehzelee Sumo, the House Committee Chairman on Information and Broadcasting, Representative Emmanuel Dahn, and the Director of the House Press Bureau, Robert Haynes.
While the Office of Speaker Koon has assured the PUL that his “statement was made without malice” and that he has “no intention to muzzle the press”, Representative Emmanuel Dahn informed the PUL that the Speaker made the ‘statement out of joke’.
‘Joke or no joke’, ‘with or without malice’, the Press Union of Liberia is demanding an immediate retraction and public apology by Speaker Koon as a mark of his remorsefulness for the uncouth anti-press remarks.
The PUL urges all journalists covering the House of Representatives to remain unbending in their pursuit of public interest stories from the Legislature as one of the core pillars of decision-making that affects the lives of the people of Liberia.
