A snapshot of the media in The Gambia

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Free expression in The Gambia is in danger of extinction. Since 1996 when the Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh disparaged journalists as “the illegitimate sons {sic} of Africa”, journalists and media houses in The Gambia have been subjected to many and varied forms of harassment and repression. The crackdown on the media is so systematic and unrelenting that journalists barely have time to recover from one assault before the onset of another.

Yahya Jammeh came to power as a young lieutenant in the Gambian Army in a bloodless coup on July 22 1994. His coup brought to an abrupt end the 30-year rule of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, the first leader of the Republic of The Gambia. In his first public appearance as leader of the junta, known at the time as the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC), Jammeh urged the press to hold his government to account. But when the press opposed his four-year transition programme, relations between him and the press went sour. And they have remained so since then.

The first casualty of the organized media repression was Kenneth Best, a Liberian journalist who took refuge in The Gambia at the height of the Liberian civil war and brought along his Daily Observer newspaper, becoming the first daily in The Gambia. However, the paper’s critical stance on issues of good governance made him unpopular with the military authorities who orchestrated his deportation, on the pretext that he flouted immigration laws.

After a few years uneasy relations between the Daily Observer and the military authorities, a Gambian entrepreneur, Amadou Samba, with close links to the authorities bought the paper from Mr. Best. Barely a week after Samba had taken over the ownership of the paper when Demba Ali Jawo, the paper’s news editor, was given his marching orders. Mr. Jawo, a political and social commentator, was well regarded by the Gambian people for his weekly column FOCUS that provided thoughtful insight into abuse of power in high places.

The take over also led to a swoop on journalists, with immigration officials permanently stationed near the premises of the paper to demand the identity of anyone entering the premises as well as hound and eventually deport many non-Gambian journalists working for the paper.

This was followed by more harassment of journalists and media houses, culminating in the closure of Citizen FM because of its daily press review in the local languages. Despite a court order for the re-opening of the radio station, its premises remained sealed off by armed policemen until the untimely death of its owner Baboucarr Gaye in 2007.

A similar fate also befell Sud FM, a private Senegalese radio station which was arbitrarily closed down, apparently for also carrying its own news and press review in the local languages. Since then therefore, existing private radio stations have been cowed down to the extent that they are no longer involved in political broadcasting. Instead, they only engage in commercial and sports programmes.

While the Citizen FM case dragged on in the court, there was a spate of arson attacks unleashed on the private press, including Radio 1FM and The Independent newspaper. Hoodlums who went by the name “Green Boys” set fire to Radio 1 FM and then on two occasions razed to the ground the printing press of The Independent newspaper. The owner of Radio 1FM George Christensen who lost his teeth in the attack now uses artificial ones.

Shortly after this, the home of Ebrima Sillah, who was at the time the BBC stringer in The Gambia, was burned to ashes while he was sleeping inside and he had to escape through the window. He now lives in exile, likewise the owners of The Independent newspaper, Baba Galleh Jallow and Alagi Yorro Jallow.

However while all these repressive tactics apparently did not cower the press, grim and gruesome measures were then taken to force the press to toe the line. On the night of Thursday 16 December 2004, Deyda Hydara, managing editor of The Point newspaper, was killed in cold blood as he drove home from work after the 13th anniversary celebration of his paper. Up until now, his murder remains unsolved and there is hardly any investigations being carried out by the authorities to bring his killers to justice.

Before then, Omar Barrow, a radio journalist who was covering a student demonstration on 10 April 2000 was shot dead in cold blood. Witnesses who appeared at a coroner’s inquest in 2001 testified that Omar Barrow was shot dead by a soldier. And in July 2006, Ebrima ‘Chief’ Manneh, a reporter with the Daily Observer disappeared into thin air. His whereabouts are still unknown.

But the strong-arm tactics have now been swapped for obnoxious laws meant to wipe the independent press out of existence either through the imposition of unreasonably high fines or incarceration of journalists for any number of years for any breach of the law. These laws include false publication, sedition and seditious intention, defamation, insult to the president, the Newspaper Registration (Amendment) Act 2004, the Criminal Code (Amendment ) Act 2005, the Communication Act 2009, the Official Secrets Act, etc.

Several other journalists including Lamin Fatty, Fatou Jaw Manneh, AbdulHamid Adiamoh and Pap Saine have all been arraigned before the court on charges of publishing false information and sedition. All of them, except Mr. Saine had had to cough up whopping sums of money for fines. Currently, two journalists – Nanama Keita and Dodou Sanneh – are standing trial for giving false information to a public officer. Both journalists had sent petitions to the Office of the President against their respective employers for wrongful dismissal. Nanama was with the Daily Observer newspaper, while Dodou was with The Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS).

The climax of media repression in The Gambia as yet is the arrest, trial, conviction and sentence of the six Gambian journalists, known as the GPU 6. They are: Bai Emil Touray (Secretary General, Gambia Press Union – GPU), Sarata Jabbi-Dibba (Vice President – GPU), Pa Modou Faal (Treasurer – GPU), Ebrima Sawaneh (Editor, The Point newspaper), Pap Saine (Managing Editor, The Point) and Sam Sarr (Managing Editor, Foroyaa newspaper).

In a reaction to President Jammeh’s malicious attack on the memory of the late Deyda Hydara, the GPU issued a press release urging the Gambia Government to take full responsibility for investigations into the murder of the journalist. The authorities were offended by the GPU reaction and then put on trial its leadership as well as the top echelons of the media houses that published the reaction. Between 15 June and 3 August 2009, the six journalists were tried, convicted and sentenced to a combined jail term of 12 years. But they were later pardoned and released after 29 days in prison.

The upshot is that self-censorship is now the norm in The Gambia. This represents a threat to free expression and press freedom. And so long as these dreadful laws remain in the statute books, journalism cannot be as effective as it should in promoting good governance and sustainable economic development in The Gambia. And the media will always remain fragile and vulnerable to big business and political coercion.

The argument that journalism is weak in country because there is no school of journalism is fallacious. There is an abundance of well trained journalists in the country but are hesitant to practise because of the tense environment caused by the draconian laws. So the primary goal of all stakeholders should be media law reform – this should be addressed urgently and in all sincerity. Whether journalism programmes are offered up to the doctorate level in the country, no significant change would still happen in the media so long as the bad laws that threaten the very existence of the media remain in place.

The GPU is also working with Article 19 Global Campaign for Free Expression under the EC Fund to repeal anti-press laws in the country in line with international standards. It is our conviction that the bane of the media is the repressive laws in the statute books. If the laws are abolished, then investors with deep pockets will be ready to invest hugely in the industry. And a matter of course, suitably qualified journalists would be attracted to the media. At the moment, all the media houses are financially fragile and are not able to attract the right caliber of journalists to the industry.

While Gambian journalists are trying all they could to weather the storm and carry on with their work under such strenuous conditions, they still need the goodwill and support of their colleagues in other countries, particularly the Commonwealth. Therefore, engagement with the CJA will no doubt help to raise their morale and confidence.

Submitted by Aloa Ahmed Alota, Executive Director of
the Gambia Press Union