The Gambia goes against the grain By D. A. Jawo The recent amendments to Section 173A of the Gambia’s Information and Communication (Amendment) Act 2013, which says that “A person who commits an offence under sub-section (1) is liable on conviction to a fine of three million Dalasis or imprisonment for fifteen years or to both the fine and imprisonment”, is yet another clear indication that while the rest of Africa is on the fast lane to good governance and democratization, the Gambia is moving on the opposite direction. While all other African countries have either de-criminalized speech or on the verge of doing so, it is sad to see the Gambia enacting such laws that are reminiscent of the 1960s and 70s when Africa was ruled by despotic one-party dictatorships. It is inconceivable in this day and age when the whole world is moving towards a complete liberalization of the airwaves, for any government to make such ambiguous laws such as punishing people for spreading “false news against the government or public officials; inciting dissatisfaction or instigating violence against the government or public officials or caricaturing, abusing or making derogatory statements against the person or character of officials.” Some of those attributes are so vague that they are quite open to abuse; and with the prevailing system in the Gambia where instead of things being subjected to strict legal interpretation, it is often President Yahya Jammeh and the other members of the APRC clique rather than the judiciary who decide on what constitute such crimes against the state, then we can easily imagine the arbitrariness and havoc such legislation can cause. While tabling the motion before the National Assembly, Information Minister Nana Grey-Johnson said the objective was “…to provide for the deterrent punishment of such persons who are engaged in such treacherous campaigns against the Gambia both internally and outside the Gambia.” Of course, considering the calibre of people we have in that National Assembly, it was quite obvious to him that the Bill was going to be passed in its entirety as a majority of the members neither fully understood nor cared about the consequences of their actions, as long as they were convinced that President Jammeh was in support of such a law. However, considering Mr. Grey-Johnson’s level of professionalism, most people were quite disappointed that he was behind such a draconian law which targeted the very core of the journalism profession. There are however, those who feel that Mr. Grey-Johnson may have been acting under duress and that he may not have subscribed to the objectives of the Bill but that he had no choice as long as it was endorsed by President Jammeh and approved by the cabinet. While it is possible that he was indeed compelled to introduce such a bad law, but there are several other issues negatively affecting the media that he should have first tackled immediately he was appointed minister. For instance, we have the pending cases of the murder of Deyda Hydara and the disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, as well as the arbitrary closure of some media houses without any court order, for which nothing had been seen to be done. Therefore, we expect any professional worthy of his or her salt to have given priority to such issues and other problems facing the Gambian media rather confounding them with such draconian laws. Despite all its open hatred of the media however; it appears that the Jammeh regime is taking some decisions based on media reports. A good case in point had been the reports of the sacking of the newly appointed Chief Justice, Joseph Wowo, which happened a few days after a damning publication of a YouTube recording in which he and the former Attorney General Lamin Jobarteh were clearly heard allegedly soliciting bribes from a litigant to help him win the case, which recently went viral in the Internet. Therefore, the very fact that Justice Wowo was sacked shortly after that, apparently means that President Jammeh has found something positive from the online media on which he based his decisions. As a result therefore, if the new law, as intended, prevents the online media from any criticism of the regime and its officials, then he will be completely left in the dark as what his corrupt officials are doing. It is indeed sad that while it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that a free press oils the engine of development of any nation, the government of the Gambia seems to be doing everything within its power to muzzle the press and encourage praise singing instead. The regime has not only transformed the Gambia Radio and Television Services into a purely propaganda outlet for the ruling APRC, completely shutting out the opposition and those with divergent views, but it has also ensured that the private media are cowed into submissiveness and those who try to do their work according to their professional conscience pay a heavy price for it. We have seen what had happened to some of those media outlets that tried to operate with professionalism, beginning with Citizen FM, Sud FM, The Independent, and quite recently, Teranga FM, The Standard and Daily News, all of which were arbitrarily closed down without any court order, simply because they refused to toe the regime’s line. Therefore, when Nana Grey-Johnson was appointed Information Minister, there was some optimism amongst many people that with his professionalism, there would be some improvement in the environment, but alas, it has now become apparent that he has also become a willing tool to further muzzle the media and help transform them into accomplices of the poor governance system, apparently in order to please the boss so that he can maintain his job. He should however be rest assured that these bad laws not only fuel more criticism of the regime, but would further entrench the status of the Gambia as the pariah state within the sub-region, and make people like him lose all credibility amongst his peers.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 22:29:59 +0000
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