From Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, CEOAFRICA.com gathered that the Press Union of the country has called for the release of publisher and editor-in-chief of FrontPage Africa newspaper, Rodney Sieh.

Mr. Sieh was arrested following the inability of his paper to pay a sum of $1.5 million in damage for libel against former Agriculture Minister J. Chris Toe. The paper was also shut down on August 23^rd.

According to Press Union of Liberia President Peter Quaqua, the union, while remaining as advocate for the rule of law, believes that the nature of the court’s decision is intended to punish Mr. Sieh rather than repair the alleged damage to Mr. Toe’s reputation.

He said the Liberian government must step in to free the publisher from further detention.

“And if that is the issue for which he now bears the punishment to spend virtually life time in prison, I think it is too much for our courts to do to anybody. So we’re calling on the court, we’re calling on the government to exercise some very high degree of wisdom to release this man (Sieh) from further detention,” he said.

The Press Union advised the government to do more in investigating the circumstances under which Mr. Toe resigned from office as agriculture minister, rather than punishing journalist Sief for bringing the story to the attention of the public.