Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS)

The Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) is Liberia’s national state-owned broadcaster, operating across radio, television and online platforms with nationwide reach. Established in 1960 as a radio service and extended to television in 1964, it operated under the British company Rediffusion until 1968, when the Government of Liberia assumed full control. Headquartered in Paynesville on the outskirts of Monrovia, LBS is the principal vehicle through which the Liberian state communicates directly with the public, and it remains one of the country’s most widely received broadcasters.

Media assets

Television: LNTV, Metro TV

Radio: ELBC 99.9 FM, Metro 89.9

Ownership and governance

LBS is a government-owned corporation. Its board of directors, together with the Director-General and senior management, is appointed by the President of Liberia. The State Media Monitor review identifies this concentrated appointment power as the central limitation on the broadcaster’s institutional autonomy, embedding LBS in the executive branch rather than insulating it through an arms-length body. There is no statutory mechanism or independent oversight commission charged with safeguarding the broadcaster’s editorial independence, and UN human-rights experts noted in 2018 that the proposed Liberia Public Broadcasting Service Act, which would transform LBS into an independent public-service broadcaster, would also require the repeal of Decree No. 20 establishing the current structure; that reform has not been enacted.

The change of government following the November 2023 election did not alter this structure. On taking office, President Joseph Boakai exercised the appointment power directly, nominating Eugene L. Fahngon as Director-General on 7 February 2024. Fahngon had previously served as Deputy Minister of Information under the Weah administration and was publicly associated with Boakai’s campaign before his appointment, prompting commentary about the continuing politicisation of the broadcaster’s leadership. The April 2024 Executive Mansion notice named a ten-member board chaired by the Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism, with the Minister of Finance also among its members, alongside presidential appointees from civil society and the professions; Fahngon sits on the board as Director-General, secretary and non-voting member. In May 2024, Liberian media reported that Fahngon proposed restricting LBS coverage to government-related matters; President Boakai publicly rejected the idea at a government retreat, saying the broadcaster must remain a platform for all Liberians. Fahngon has continued to lead LBS into 2026.

Source of funding and budget

The State Media Monitor review reports that LBS is funded primarily from the public purse, with a modest share of revenue from commercial sources such as airtime sales and advertising.

The broadcaster has also been a notable recipient of bilateral assistance from China. The two governments signed a US$5.5 million agreement in April 2024 to refurbish and expand the former ELBC facility, a Chinese-funded modernisation that the broadcaster has described as the second phase of a partnership dating to a 2006 technical-assistance agreement. The SMM review records that in March 2025 the Ministry of Information confirmed a separate Chinese grant of about USD 300,000 in transmission and broadcasting equipment, supplied without a public tender process or formal parliamentary oversight. In May 2026 President Boakai commissioned the new broadcasting complex at the LBS compound in Paynesville, with seven new studios, a central control system, satellite broadcasting capability and an associated water supply built for the facility and surrounding communities; the Chinese Embassy and the Director-General signed the handover certificate at the dedication ceremony.

According to the SMM review, government audits of LBS continue intermittently but no publicly available audit report has been released for the 2023 or 2024 financial years, leaving the broadcaster’s detailed accounts outside the public domain and prompting ongoing concerns about financial transparency, particularly regarding donor aid.

Editorial independence

LBS’s editorial output is shaped by its governance structure rather than by any independent legal safeguard. The State Media Monitor review records that the broadcaster operates with little to no editorial autonomy, with local journalists and analysts consistently describing it as a mouthpiece of the ruling administration; reporting is reported as clearly favourable to government initiatives and narratives, with minimal space for opposition or dissenting views. In February 2025, an opposition spokesperson’s scheduled interview on LBS Radio was reportedly cancelled at the last minute, allegedly under pressure from the Ministry of State, and in March 2025 the broadcaster faced public backlash after airing a celebratory segment on President Boakai’s infrastructure tour while ignoring ongoing teacher strikes in several counties. Internal editorial guidelines, according to leaked documents reviewed by journalists and cited in the SMM review, emphasise “nation-building priorities” and discourage “negative political discourse.”

Legal reform has improved the environment for the private press: the 2019 Kamara Abdullah Kamara Act of Press Freedom repealed criminal libel against the President, sedition and criminal malevolence offences. None of this has translated into structural reform at LBS itself, and civil-society groups continue to call for the depoliticisation of leadership appointments and the establishment of arms-length governance in line with public-service broadcasting norms.

These conditions place LBS firmly in the State-Controlled (SC) category. The broadcaster is government-owned, wholly governed by presidential appointment, primarily funded from the state budget, and operating without statutory editorial safeguards, the textbook configuration for direct state control rather than capture or arms-length public service. The classification is unchanged from 2022, and the developments of the review period reinforce rather than alter it. The 2024 change of government brought a new Director-General but preserved the appointment-by-presidency model in full; the Chinese-funded broadcast-complex project, while a substantial infrastructure upgrade, has flowed through the broadcaster without the kind of independent oversight or arms-length governance that would attenuate state control. The SC classification continues to apply for 2026.

AI and digital policy

No LBS-specific published policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content-provenance standards such as C2PA was identified. The broadcaster maintains a digital presence through its three official news platforms but no sector-specific framework governing AI-generated or synthetic news content in Liberia’s state media was identified.

May 2026