The editorial in the Liberian Diaspora newspaper on January 18 was scathing about the ongoing hearings of the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It argued that the Commission wants to validate and reinforce the trial of former president Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague. The paper is published by Taylor's former Minister of Information, Reginald B. Goodridge. According to him, TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier is supposedly Sierra Leonean and was simply ensuring that his previous "campaign against Taylor" comes to fruition. The coincidental timing of the public hearings before the TRC and the opening of the trial at The Hague are what the paper called a "showcase". Several Taylor loyalists, who now refer to themselves as "friends of Taylor", said they perceive the TRC process as a "strategy of the Special Court to nail Taylor and demonize him", according to Sando Johnson. This former member of parliament under Taylor and now in his early 40s, described the TRC as "trash" and "another ploy by America and Great Britain to punish Taylor for not bowing down to them".

Acarous Gray, a member of the opposition party led by George Weah, believes the TRC "has to be extremely careful not to accommodate testimonies about Sierra Leone". In his opinion, the TRC has nothing to do with the trial, but he did not rule out the possibility that "some invisible hands could be trying to corroborate the trial of Taylor". Other Liberians argue that the two events have nothing in common. "Testimonies before the TRC cannot be used against Taylor - at least that is what we were told," says Jethrode, a political science student at the University of Liberia. For him, the problem is that the trial is not as widely publicized in Liberia as promised. "We read stories on the proceeding in few newspapers, listen to it on Star Radio and view clips seldom on Power TV, but that is not enough," he said. Most of Liberia's newspapers are read only in Monrovia. The FM stations hardly go beyond the capital. Televisions signals are only received within a 25 mile radius. Darryl Kpan, 15, shook his head as he watched the trial on Power TV. He struggles to understand why the former president is accused of rape. "The papea [Taylor] had money; he could get any woman. Why should he rape anybody?" he asks, adding, "Taylor is finished!"