Radio closed following anti-US statements

The Liberian government on Monday "temporarily" closed down a private radio station, DC 101, for airing a talk show in which callers expressed sentiments which the authorities perceived as anti-American. A diplomatic source in Monrovia told IRIN on Tuesday that callers had expressed views which gave the impression that Liberia was not in sympathy with the US following the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. After police went to DC 101, "the station went off air and the moderator of the programme, T. Max Jlateh, was taken to custody", the source said. The programme was meant to give callers an opportunity to callers to say whether their relatives or people they knew were victims of the attacks, or missing as a result of them. The government said that the programme contravened national security interests. Liberian President Charles Taylor had condemned the attacks and announced three days of national mourning for the victims. AFP quoted him as calling the attacks a "war on the conscience of global peace and the foundations of human morality".