Flashback: 2025 celebrations
Monrovia-From the one-party rule of Tubman to the barracks of Doe, from warlord checkpoints to peacetime intimidation, the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has survived it all, and looking back six two years later.
On today Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the PUL will mark 62 years since its founding, six decades of battling censorship, imprisonment, murder, proscription and economic strangulation, with a parade, an indoor program and a night-long reception.
This year’s anniversary will be held under the theme “62 Years On: Empowering Independent Media for Democracy, Accountability, and Sustainable Development.”
According to the Union, Ms. Georgia Wallen, Country Manager of the World Bank Group Liberia, will deliver the keynote motivational address during the official indoor program at the Clar Marie Weah Events Hall at the Center for National Documents and Records Agency, National Archives, on 12th Street, Sinkor.
Her address will be followed by a panel discussion on the role of independent media in advancing democracy, accountability and sustainable development, featuring Cllr. Medina Wesseh, Senior Counsel at the International Law Group, and Mr. Lahoucine Rahmouni, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Liberia.
A PUL statement said Representatives from government institutions, civil society, and academia are also expected to deliver remarks.
Founded in September 1964 under President William V.S. Tubman at a time when Liberia was a one-party state and the press was expected to be a praise-singer for the True Whig Party, the PUL began as a small professional guild.
Its struggle started immediately. Under Tubman and later William R. Tolbert, journalists who strayed were branded enemies of the state, denied advertising, and hauled before security agencies.
Under Samuel K. Doe after the 1980 coup, the struggle turned bloody. Military Decree 88-A gagged the press, editors were flogged, detained at the notorious Post Stockade, and newspapers shut down.
Veteran journalists like Rufus Darpoh were forced into exile. The PUL itself was outlawed at one point, its offices ransacked, its leaders declared wanted.
The two civil wars, 1989 to 2003, were the darkest chapter. At least 15 journalists were killed. Many more were tortured at checkpoints by NPFL, INPFL, ULIMO and government forces.
Printing presses were looted. Radio stations were seized to broadcast warlord propaganda. The PUL operated from exile, in hiding, and in ruins, yet never stopped documenting atrocities and advocating for press freedom.
Even in peace, the struggle did not end. Under successive democratic governments, journalists have faced libel suits designed to bankrupt them, police brutality during protests, threats for exposing corruption, and the weaponization of advertising to reward loyalist outlets and punish critical ones.
The fight against criminal libel, which led to the signing of the Kamara Abdullah Kamara Act of Press Freedom in 2019, was itself a 20-year struggle led by the PUL.It is against this brutal history of resilience, not just routine reporting, that this year’s 62nd anniversary is being celebrated.
The day will begin with a grand parade bringing together journalists, media and communication practitioners, journalism and mass communication students, and members of the public.The parade will start at the University of Liberia’s Capitol Hill Campus and proceed through central Monrovia to the Clar Marie Weah Events Hall.
The indoor program is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the National Archives while the anniversary will climax with a celebratory reception at the PUL Head Office on Warner Avenue, 9th Street, Sinkor, from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.
The Union has encouraged journalists, media practitioners, students and the public to participate as it reflects on six decades of service.
Meanwhile, ahead of the celebrations, the PUL on Monday, September 28, welcomed BBC journalist Jacob Evans and a delegation from the humanitarian organization Mary’s Meals International.
Evans is in Liberia to produce a documentary as part of activities marking Mary’s Meals’ 20th anniversary in the country.
The delegation included Alex Keay, Director of Partnerships, and Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Head of Media and Editorial.
During the visit, PUL leadership highlighted the important roles of journalism and humanitarian organizations in advancing human development, and said the engagement provided an opportunity to strengthen relationships between Liberian media and international media and humanitarian partners.
The 62nd anniversary is expected to bring together journalists, government officials, civil society actors, academics, development partners, students and the public, not just to celebrate survival, but to ask how an independent press, battered for 62 years yet still standing, can be empowered to hold democracy, accountability and sustainable development together.
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