Monrovia - Professor Joe Mulbah, a former Minister of Information Culture Affairs and Tourism in Liberia has died.

Mulbah who served as an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Mass Communication Department at the University of Liberia died Friday evening in Firestone, Margibi County from complications of diabetes and hypertension, family sources confirmed to FrontPageAfrica.

Mulbah was regarded as one of Liberia’s seasoned journalism trainer, a media consultant and before his death was a candidate for an LLB degree in Law from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law in Liberia.

A former Minister of Information in Liberia, Mr. Mulbah held two masters in Media and Communication; and International Relations. Mulbah was also a member of the board of the Liberia Broadcasting System.

Mulbah made his mark during the Samuel Doe era as host of the popular ELWA Radio news program Window on the World, a 30-minute daily news magazine covering major news making headlines during the day.

But it was his stint as Information Minister during the Charles Taylor era that drew Mulbah under the microscope.

In 2000, Mulbah took issue with reports that two British journalists and a Sierra Leonean detained by the Charles Taylor government were beaten while in custody.  Mulbah famously noted: “no-one had laid a finger on the detained journalists.”

The late Joe Mulbah also criticized the lawyer for the journalists, Cllr. Varney Sherman for alleging his clients had been beaten.

"He made this [allegation] seeking sympathy, under a framework of propaganda. At the end of the day the true story will be told."

In his latter years as head of the Media and Mass Communications school at the University of Liberia, Mulbah is credited for molding a new generation of journalists in a post-war nation lacking resources and  as a result of the brain drain resulting from years of war. But his ties to Taylor made Mulbah a sometimes unpopular figure.

In 2006, journalist Lyndon Ponnie walked out of a World Press Freedom celebration Day celebration in Monrovia  in protest to the Press Union of Liberia’s decision to invite Mulbah as Keynote Speaker.

Ponnie told the gathering that Mr. Mulbah was enemy of free press when he served the government of former President Charles Taylor.

He alleged Mr. Mulbah witnessed with contempt the torturing of journalists by Taylor’s security forces. Several journalists suffered persecution while others fled in exile during the Taylor’s era.