Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in a letter to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia expressed concern over the arrest of Festus Poquie, editor of New Democrat newspaper the UK-based Daily Mail.

PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali in his letter urged the Liberian government to order for a speedy investigation into the matter.

According to Center for Media Studies & Peace Building, on September 15, Poquie was arrested from his office by an unknown vehicle and taken to the headquarters of the Liberian National Police on Capitol Hill, where he was interrogated and detained for several hours.

He was detained for re-publishing story about linking the President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema to harrowing revelations, dictatorship and rights abuses in the newspaper.

President’s former Advisor, Severo Moto made the horrifying revelation of evil practices against his former boss in an interview which was captured by the global media as “Torturer in Chief”. In reaction to the September 13 story of the paper, the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism described the story as reckless and libellously unbalanced against President Nguema.

Culling is a normal practice in journalism and as such, no journalist should be arrested for that.