Mass media in Liberia include the press, radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet. Much of Liberia's communications infrastructure was destroyed or plundered during the two civil wars (1989-1996 and 1999-2003). With low rates of adult literacy and high poverty rates, television and newspaper use is limited, leaving radio as the predominant means of communicating with the public. Even as it struggles with economic and political constraints, Liberia's media environment is expanding. The number of registered newspapers and radio stations (many of them community stations) is on the rise despite limited market potential. And politically critical content and investigative pieces do get published or broadcast.

Press

The main newspapers are: * '' The Analyst''"Liberia: LMC Extols Media Institutions"
''The NEWS'', 16 September 2008, AllAfrica. *Pumah Times Newspaper * '' Daily Observer'' (est. 1981), private. * '' The Daily Talk'' * ''

FrontPage Africa ''FrontPage Africa'' is a Liberian daily newspaper founded in 2005 by Rodney Sieh. As of 2012, it had a circulation of 1,500. ''FrontPage Africa'' has received international recognition for its investigative journalism, and the ''Christian Scienc ...

'', private. * ''

The Inquirer ''The Inquirer'' (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from ''The Register'' (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch ...

'', private daily."Liberia profile"
''BBC News'', 14 March 2012. * ''National Chronicle''"Media regulator recommends support for local media coverage of truth commission", BBC Monitoring Africa, 27 June 2008. * ''The New Dawn'', private daily. * ''New Democrat'' * '' New Republic Liberia''Alphonso been in the profession for over twenty years. He has worked for many international media outlets including: West Africa Magazine, Africa Week Magazine, African Observer and did occasional reporting for CNN, BBC World Service, Sunday Times, NPR, Radio Deutchewells, Radio Netherlands. He is the current correspondent for Reuters. Mr. Toweh holds first MA with honors in International Relations and a candidate for second master in International Peace studies and Conflict Resolution. Defunct newspapers and magazines include: * ''Africa League'' * ''African Nationalist'' * ''Africa's Luminary'' (est. 1839) * ''Amulet'' (est. 1839) * ''Daily Listener'' (est. 1950) * ''Footprints Today'' (est. 1984) * ''The Friend'' * ''Independent Weekly'' * ''Journal of Commerce and Industry'' * ''Liberia and West Africa'' (ceased in 1932) * '' Liberia Herald'' (est. 1826) * ''Liberian Age'' (est. 1946) * ''Liberian Herald'' * ''Liberian News'' * ''Liberian Recorder'' (est. 1897) * ''Liberian Star'' (est. 1839) * ''Monrovia Observer'' (est. 1878) * ''Palm Magazine'' * ''SunTimes'' * ''Weekly Mirror'' * ''Whirlwind''

Radio

Radios Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

: 790,000 radio receivers (1997). *

Radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

: 1 state-owned radio station, but no national public service broadcaster; about 15 independent radio stations broadcasting in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...

, with another 25 local stations operating in other areas; transmissions of 2 international broadcasters are available (2007)."Communications: Liberia"
''World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 28 January 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014. ** BBC World Service 103 FM. ** ELBC FM, public."Liberia: Radio Station Websites"
Radio Station World. Retrieved 8 February 2014. ** ELWA FM and SW, private, religious-Christian. **Pumah FM 106.3 ** LUX 106.6 FM,

University of Liberia The University of Liberia (UL or LU in older versions of abbreviation) is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the university opened in 1862 as Liberia Coll ...

. ** Radio Liberia FM, operated by the state-run Liberian Broadcasting System (LBS). ** Radio Veritas FM and SW, religious-Catholic. ** RFI English FM, the English service of

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...

. ** Sky FM ** STAR Radio FM and SW, operated in partnership with Swiss-based Hirondelle Foundation. ** Truth FM ** UNMIL Radio FM, operated by the United Nations mission. ** Voice of Firestone Liberia 89.5 FM

Television

Television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

s: 70,000 sets (1997). *Pumah TV Channel 4 *

Television stations A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

: 4 private TV stations, none with national reach; satellite TV service available (2007). ** Clar TV, private. ** DC TV, private. ** Power TV, private. ** Real TV, private. * Liberia Broadcasting System: Government owned Liberia National Television (LNTV).

Telephones

* Calling code: +231 *

International call prefix An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...

: 00 * Main lines: 3,200 lines in use, 213th in the world (2011). * Mobile cellular: 2.4 million lines, 138th in the world (2012). * Telephone system: the limited services available are found almost exclusively in the capital Monrovia; fixed-line service stagnant and extremely limited; telephone coverage extended to a number of other towns and rural areas by four mobile-cellular network operators; mobile-cellular subscription base growing and teledensity reached 50 per 100 persons (2011). * Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

) (2010). * Communications cables: Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable system, links countries along the west coast of Africa to each other and on to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The

fixed line A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

infrastructure of Liberia was nearly completely destroyed during the

civil wars A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

(1989-1996 and 1999-2003). Prior to the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 2007, the state-owned Liberia Telecommunications Corporation (LIBTELCO) held a

legal monopoly A legal monopoly, statutory monopoly, or ''de jure'' monopoly is a monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a government monopoly where the state owns the particular means of production or govern ...

for all fixed line services in Liberia, and remains the sole licensed fixed line telephone service provider in the country. Two licensed

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

cellular mobile service providers operate in the country: Lonestar Cell and CellCom. Approximately 45% of the population has cell phone service.

Internet

Top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

.lr .lr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, ...

Internet users The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

: ** 317,717 users; 7.3% of the population, 158th in the world (2016 est.).Calculated using penetration rate and population data fro
"Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2012"
, Population data, International Programs, U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 26 June 2013."Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012"
International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013. ** 20,000 users, 194th in the world (2009). * Fixed broadband: 78 subscriptions, 193rd in the world; less than 0.05% of the population, 192nd in the world (2012)."Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. *

Wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word ...

: Unknown (2012)."Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. * Internet hosts: 7 hosts, 228th in the world (2012). * IPv4: 13,312 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 3.4 addresses per 1000 people (2012).Population

The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. Accessed on 2 April 2012. Note: Data are mostly for 1 July 2012.

Notable commercial websites

While Liberia's commercial internet sector is still behind the majority of African countries there are still a few classifieds sites:
liberiacommerce.com

Internet censorship and surveillance

There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitors

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

or Internet

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

."Liberia"
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 25 March 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2014. The constitution provides for freedom of speech and

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Libel and national security laws place some limits on freedom of speech. Individuals can generally criticize the government publicly or privately without reprisal. Some journalists practice self-censorship. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice. President Sirleaf endorsed and signed the

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization made up of 76 national newspaper associations, 12 news agencies, 10 regional press organisations, and many individual newspaper ex ...

' Declaration of Table Mountain in

on 21 July 2012, committing to the core principles of a free press and calling for the repeal of the criminal defamation and insult laws regularly used against journalists.

References

* *

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * (Includes information about broadcast media) * * *

External links

Liberia Domain Registration (.lr)
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Communications In Liberia Liberia Liberia Liberia