“Mercenary Journalist”

Jackson Dubs Chronicle’s Owner

Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism; Isaac W. Jackson has labeled the owner of the National Chronicle newspaper as a mercenary journalist bent on lies and blackmail.

Deputy Minister Jackson and Mr. Philipbert Browne had both appeared on a radio talk show earlier on Thursday to discuss controversy surrounding the oil sector.

Mr. Browne was representing Broadway Consolidated Group that has a stake in one of Liberia’s oil blocks; while Deputy Minister Jackson was representing the Government of Liberia.

The conversation was expected to have provided an insight into controversy surrounding the emerging Liberian oil sector.

But the Deputy MICAT chief for public affairs walked out once, according to him, the show took what he described as an unprofessional dimension.

Addressing a weekly press briefing at the Ministry’s Capitol Hill headquarters on Thursday, Deputy Minister Jackson said his action did not suggest that he lacked information on the sector but to secure his integrity.

Deputy Minister Jackson said he could not continue with the conversation when Mr. Browne had begun calling him names.

“I felt it was a pointless waste of my pressure time to sit across the table with somebody who conducts himself like a mercenary journalist, addicted to spreading lies and often engages in outright blackmail. I could not sit there to listen to him calling me small boy,” the incensed Deputy Minister told the press briefing.

“I could not allow myself to be bullied by Mr. Browne,” he added.

“We must, at all times, accord respect to people in authority.”

However, the learned Attorney-at-Law would not end his remark about his abandonment of the show. He labeled Mr. Browne as a “liar, mercenary journalist and the blackmailer”.

Fellow Deputy Minister for Technical Services, Robert Kpadeh said the situation was unfortunate, and that Mr. Browne had acted like a “villain”.

Acting Minister Norris Tweah has said the Ministry will make a formal complaint to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).