Press bodies protest at Liberian newspaper ban

The leaders of two world press bodies have protested to Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, about her government's "arbitrary ban" on The Independent. The paper was shut down after publishing sexually explicit pictures of a minister, Willis Knuckles, engaged in sexual acts with two women on February 20. The presidents of the World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum, Gavin O'Reilly and George Brock respectively, regard the ban as a "a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression." (Via Editors' weblog)