–Calls for Elders of the Union to Help Save the PUL

IPNEWS-Monrovia: A former Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) and veteran Liberian journalist formerly of the VOA fame, Tom Winston Monboe, has added his voice to that of his colleagues, including Aaron B. Kollie, Jonathan Paye-Layleh, the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL) and all well-meaning PUL that have called on every stakeholder of the union to uphold its sanctity and aspirations of the founders of the PUL.

In a statement posted on is Facebook page on Monday, November 21, 2022, Mr. Monboe expressed utter disappointment by actions of his colleagues to hurt the reputation and legacy of the Press Union of Liberia.

“A lot of us sacrificed, at some point at the peril of our lives to uphold the sanctity foundational to the aspirations of the founders of the PUL,” the former PUL Chief Scribe says.

Commenting further, the one-time Voice of America (VOA) Liberia’s Correspondent notes: “Our most critical period was when there was the so-called Greater Liberia faction of the PUL. Even during that era, we all demonstrated borderless allegiance to maintain the unity of the Union.”

He then laments: “What I am reading is not good for the organization to which we have inextricable connection, bounded by a shared professional identity.”

Concluding, the PUL former Secretary General, Tom Winston Monboe, states: “The elders of the Union need to meet and help to save the Union from what appears to be a creeping public ridicule that could cause a long term reputational damage to our revered and historical watchdog credentials.”

It can be recalled prior to the controversial Gbarnga PUL elective congress, veteran Liberian journalist of BBC-fame, Jonathan Paye-Layleh called on the PUL leadership to put a hold on the election aspect of the Congress until all concerns raised by a contending candidate and his team regarding the process leading to the elections are amicably resolved.

Mr. Paye-Layleh, who is also a former president, Press Club, PUL; former chairman, PUL Grievance & Ethics Committee; former member, PUL Election Committee; and former, PUL Mediation Committee in the Rodney Sieh-Chris Toe Case, says he was troubled by the ongoing election-related controversy in the Union as it goes to the poll, and called for intervention and understanding that will get the matter amicably resolved in the interest of the oneness that has kept the journalist body together over the years. But his plead fell on duck’s back as the Charles Coffey leadership fail to heed.

Also another veteran journalist Aaron B. Kollie calls for urgent Judicial Review of controversial PUL’S Elective Congress held in Gbarnga in Bong County over the weekend.

Veteran journalist, Kollie is seeking an urgent legal intervention into what has now become a controversial Press Union of Liberia (PUL)’s 2022 Elective Congress.

“Saturday evening’s late after-hour ruling handed down by the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County, in the disputed Press Union of Liberia (PUL) Elective Congress, is the most historically brazen and egregious ill-advised legal judgment by a Liberian court in recent time. As a result, that must be rejected and resisted by the Liberian media in all its forms,” Mr. Kollie says in a special statement he released late Sunday evening, November 20, 2022.

According to the veteran Liberian journalist, the ruling by the court, in a newly cherished judiciary, headed by Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, that has won public admiration and approbation for its open declaration to uphold the rule of law without fear or favor, has the sole intent and purpose of sowing seeds of discord and disunity within the PUL that should not be entertained, but urgently reviewed at the highest level of the judiciary.

At the same time, the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL) called for sanctity to prevail in keeping with the laws of the union, as doing the wrong thing will divide the union. Other individual Liberian journalists through their respective social media pages have called for the right things to be done to salvage the damaged image of the PUL.