Press Union of Liberia (PUL) President Julius Kanubah, has challenged the newly inducted leadership of the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL), to prioritize journalists welfare. Kanubah wants members of the PAL to focus on improving journalists’ welfare, strengthening ethical standards and ensuring institutional sustainability in Liberia’s struggling media landscape.
He spoke on Friday, August 29, 2025, at the induction ceremony of PAL officers at the Monrovia City Hall. Mr. Kanubah meanwhile, congratulated the new team led by Alphonso Toweh, Bai Sama G. Best, Winnie Saywah Jimmy and Chester Smith. He also commended outgoing president Othello Garblah, for “a principled leadership.” Without shying away from addressing critical gaps in the media industry, Kanubah pointedly urged PAL to move beyond symbolic elections and prioritize bread-and-butter issues confronting Liberian journalists. He named those issues as low salaries, lack of health insurance, absence of employment contracts and poor working conditions.
Kanubah: “The quality of journalism and media can only improve when publishers commit themselves to addressing the real struggles of their reporters and staff.” He warned that continued neglect risks undermining professionalism and ethics in the press. Mr. Kanubah said that publishers, as employers, carry a constitutional responsibility to uphold fairness, accuracy, impartiality and accountability in their editorial decisions. He urged PAL to collaborate closely with the PUL to raise ethical standards in the profession. On institutional development, Kanubah pressed the new PAL leadership to support the long-delayed construction of the Stanton Peabody Media House, envisioned as the permanent headquarters of the PUL. He spoke of the PAL not treat the Union headquarters project an isolated responsibility, but as a shared obligation of all auxiliaries, including reporters, sports writers and female journalists’ associations. In a veiled critique of internal divisions, Kanubah appealed for reconciliation within the PUL, saying: “it was time to put aside factional rivalries, and work together for the rights of journalists and the freedom of the press.” While acknowledging PAL’s smooth elections, which were conducted with the involvement of PUL representatives, noted that the challenges highlighted by Kanubah reflect deeper systemic problems in the media industry particularly publishers’ reluctance to enforce fair labor practices and invest in sustainability. As Liberia’s media community celebrates “democratic progress,” the bigger question remains whether publishers will translate rhetoric into meaningful reforms for frontline journalists, who continue to operate under precarious and exploitative conditions.