Gambia’s fledging media is learning how to emerge from crippling harassment-Yorro Jallow
  World Press Freedom Day
  “Freedom of the Press in the Gambia”
  A  lecture by Alagi Jallow
  May 4, 2006
  Intro: I want to thank Amnesty International for inviting me to speak about the importance of press freedoms. 
  I would like to answer ‘What happens to a society that lacks freedom of press?’ in my talk with you today. I come from the Gambia, a small country in West Africa that gained its independence from the British in 1965. It has been known in the past as the ‘smiling coast’—a place of sunshine, welcome and real generosity of spirit. With decolonization, it became the home of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and it was a bastion of democracy in a continent beset by military take-overs and depotic regimes.
  
  Independent Managing Editor
  Alagi Yorro Jallow, addresses Amnesty
  forum in New York
  All this changed in July 1994, when a group of junior army officers overthrew the 30-year long government of Sir Dawda K. Jawara. They installed themselves first as military overlords, and in 1996, they rigged the constitution and went on to fix the presidential elections in favor of their contender, Yahya Jammeh who had transformed himself into a civilian candidate—one who based his candidacy on a platform of ridding the country of corruption, transparency and decency, and on probity in all matters of governance.
  I will use the example of the Gambia to try to answer the question ‘What happens to a society that lacks freedom of the press?’ My hope is that through this discussion you will have not only a better understanding of what it means to work as journalist under pressure in the Gambia, but also the importance of continuing to defend media freedom and individual journalists worldwide. 
  1998 Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said that the “absence of a free press and the suppression of people’s ability to speak to and to communicate with each other directly impoverishes human freedom and impairs development.” What this means is that if press freedoms are taken away, then all of society suffers and development stagnates. 
  I am sure you have heard and read about stories of journalists being detained arbitrarily, violently attacked and even assassinated. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, already 12 journalists have been confirmed killed in 2006 because of their work. 
  These stories are extraordinary and receive widespread media attention, however, today, the principal weapon is not arbitrary detention and violent physical attacks on journalists and their press houses. More and more we are seeing that through the manipulated justice system, the courts are coerced into providing the gags and handcuffs. Undoubtedly hundreds of journalists have been charged, tried and convicted – while unjust, this approach to stifle dissent does not attract as much attention as violence and can be equally effective.
  The emergence of independent, privately owned newspapers in the past decade is one of the surest indications of the movement toward democratization in West Africa. This form of media pluralism, however, exists in a number of countries against a backdrop of incessant demands and challenges. The 1990’s were boom years for media development in West Africa. Newspapers literally covered city streets and capitals. 
  Radio stations filled the airwaves across the sub-region where Gambians once had to make do with two radio stations [one state owned, one private]. Two decades into the Gambia’s independence, the airwaves in Gambia have witnessed a steady rise in the number of stations and listeners. During this time it appeared that the government monopoly of the mass media had been irrevocably shattered, leaving an increasingly inquiring audience with a variety of choices for information. This progressive trend in the mass media pluralism and freedom was among the most visible and remarkable victories in the nascent democratic strivings of the people of the region. 
  Almost a decade into the continent-wide democratization process, independent journalism has emerged as a powerful force capable of rooting out entrenched dictatorships and educating the masses about the responsibilities of elected governments. The media in Africa has made a tremendous effort to defend democratic gains and to expand the bounds of freedom by trying to force accountability from officials and political institutions. However, unlike civil society and media, the leadership has not “democratized” at an equal pace and criticism by newspapers and other media sources are not taken lately. Consequently, some African leaders across the continent have devised new ways to deal with journalists who refuse to be silenced. The independent media has become vulnerable to potential cases for libel suits, seditious charges, contempt charges, exorbitant fines, and most frequently in prison. 
  After the coup in 1994, attacks on news organizations started almost immediately in the Gambia. There were raids on the independent press and journalists critical of the regime were subject to harassment and deportation. Despite the crackdown and the narrowing of the space for freedom of expression, I and Baba Galleh Jallow started The Independent, a bi-weekly newspaper which hit newsstand in July 1999. It soon became the fastest growing newspaper in terms of readership and popularity. With its Monday and Friday editions, circulation grew to 10,000 with an estimated readerhip of more than 30,000. 
  Less than a month after The Independent was launched, the National Intelligence Agency, or NIA, raided its offices and many journalists were arrested and detained. Authorities claimed that the paper had not fulfilled all of its obligations to operate legally. These charges came despite the fact that the newspaper had been given permissions from the government to open. For two weeks, the paper ceased publication. Once it began again, harassment and intimidation continued with unrestrained regularity. I was arrested and detained as the authorities attempted to investigate the paper’s source of funding. Even female typesetters were taken for questioning at the NIA headquarters in Banjul.
  In July 2000, one off my senior staff was arrested and detained by the NIA after I published an article about a hunger strike at the Central Prison. we were asked to reveal our sources and we refused. Eventually we were released on bail. In August, however, I was arrested again and this time placed in solitary confinement where I was subjected to physical and mental harassment and psychological torture. Officers forced me to strip naked and I was kept in the empty cell. Mosquitoes were everywhere and the floor was damp with urine. Many of the prisoners in jail were sick,and I contracted pneumonia and malaria as a result of the confinement. During this time, I was held incommunicado and was not allowed to talk to anyone, including my family or a lawyer. 
  A month later I was arrested again when The Independent published a story with news that the vice president had remarried. The government was embarrassed by the story because it was customary for a person to wait one year before remarrying after his or her spouse dies. Hardly a week passed during this time without staff members being harassed by the NIA authorities or other people identify with the ruling regime.
  In October 2003, The Independent’s premises were set on fire for the first time, and the newsroom was partly destroyed. A security guard was attacked and hit with an iron bar. I began receiving death threats. By January of 2004, the situation had deteriorated even more, when I received a letter signed by a group called the “Green Boys” threatening to kill me and destroy my newspaper because of our reporting. Soon the printing press was burned. One source told the National Assembly that two officers of the National Guard were among those who attacked The Independent, yet no investigation of this crime has been undertaken.
  When it began in 1999, the Independent had 25 staffers and freelancers. Today it has only eleven staff. After enduring years of harassment and real threats, the paper’s senior reporters and support staff, fearing their own safety, left the paper, and many have been compelled to leave the country, seeking political asylum abroad.
  Today, Gambia’s fledging media is learning how to emerge from crippling harassment. President Jamey’s hostility towards journalists opened the doors for Parliament to find ways and means to muzzle the press. The National Media Commission was enacted which serves to undermine and eventually denigrate the workings of the media. The composition of such a Commission makes little or no room for a fair degree of media representation, while some of the provisions reduce journalists to mere apologists of established order. 
  The Gambia Press Union and my friend Deyda Hydara, editor of the newspaper the Point, felt that this was unjust and that it was inimical to a free press. We hired a lawyer who helped us contest this legislation in a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of the Gambia. Two hearings were held and it was apparent that the government was on the verge of losing the case. To avoid such an upset, the government moved to repeal the law at issue. We did not want to withdraw our case because we wanted to have a final declaration before the court that this law was unconstitutional. Even if government had repealed the law, we never trusted government intentions, and we wanted the law to be struck down in the court. The government then immediately replaced this repealed Act with an equally draconian set of laws,the Newspaper Amendment Act and the Criminal Code [Amendment] Act. Currently, this lawsuit is still pending before the Supreme Court in Gambia. Currently we are looking for sources
 of funding for our lawyer to continue to pursue this case.
  My friend and colleague Deyda Hydara was gunned down in cold blood on the 16th of December 2004. He was shot in the head and the chest with a 9mm bullet. He had long been an ardent supporter of truthful and impartial reportage. He spoke the truth and wrote the truth. He was not afraid to confront injustice, mis-governance or criminality. He has paid the ultimate price of professionalism and integrity. He was shot down in cold blood, and the half-hearted police investigation has brought no one to justice. As you can imagine, Deyda’s murder has had a profound effect on me. 
  The murder of Deyda Hydara, a veteran Gambian journalist is evident of the extent to which the government is prepared to go in order to silence its opponents. It demonstrates the intractable view of President Jammeh that all journalists are criminal illiterates who would be best ‘buried six feet deep’. It reveals the impunity of those who murder people who dare to oppose the government.
  Such actions expose the rotten heart of the government in my beautiful country. Hydara’s assassination brought home the message that Gambian government is desperate to curtail the independent media, and that it will go to any length to quell opposition voices. If a man like him can be murdered for the proper execution of his profession, then no one can sleep peacefully. Nobody there will be spared.
  In the Gambia, self-censorship is a real possibility. Hydara’s death has sparked a climate of fear that could lead to fewer voices critical of government. Families of journalists and independent media workers, even the families of those who operate the printing presses, are now pressuring their loved ones to refrain from overt criticism of the regime and to look for other employment. Even a slight association with the media is a dangerous thing.
  The highest contempt is to negate the life of a human being and it is the grossest and most repulsive violation of human rights. What right does a government have in separating a husband from his wife, a father from his children, a friend from his loved ones, a colleague from his professional community through sheer brutality and malice? Why should journalists be held criminally accountable for giving the people a voice through the power of freedom of expression?
  On March 27, 2006, plain clothes police officers stormed the Independent’s offices, arrested every member of the remaining staff and sealed off The Independent with guards stationed. Most of the staff were released after brief questioning, but two editors and a reporter were held in custody, incommunicado. And once again, no reasons were given for the closing down of the Independent. Of the three of the Independent staff arrested, two have been released on bail but must report on a daily basis to the NIA headquarters. The other reporter is still in custody and the newspaper offices are still locked and guarded. No charges have been filed and no reasons have been given for the continued harassment of the Independent staff.
  During this past decade, there has been no end to detention, harassment, beatings, arson, and murder of journalists. And if it is not unruly soldiers and police brutalizing media people, or subjecting them to arbitrary detention, it is the courts frightening them out of their wits. Incessant prison sentences and the forbidden damages of gagging and killing media all over the region will continue to be featured in the relationship between journalists who want to guard against any form of inimical encroachment and authorities who want to be treated with dictatorial respect. 
  There is, however, another factor serving to weaken the African media, one that is slightly paradoxical in nature. The unprecedented rise in the demand for information within the African public has served as impetus for the media to reassert its civic role. As a result, the public has taken the media much more seriously on its word. However, this period of awakening has simultaneously revealed a media prone to bad press. The greater the expectation of the public, the deeper the disenchantment appears with the current state of the media in Africa. As such, the survival of newspapers in our region arguably has as much to do with eradicating judicial sanctions as with meeting the public’s expectations.
  The Gambia government passes into law the Criminal Code [Amendment] 2004, which further violates the right to freedom of expression in the Gambia. This disdainful act enables an oppressive government to criminally charge any journalist with which it does not agree. Journalists are charged with libel and sedition, sentenced to a minimum of three years of inhumane imprisonment. In addition, the newspaper proprietors must post a bond of $20,000.
  The Gambian constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, in practice, the government significantly limits the full exercise of these freedoms by using intimidation, police pressure, regulatory scrutiny and laws that inhibit the media. Section 207 sub section [1] of the constitution further guarantees the fundamental principle of freedom of the press and expression and states as follows;’The freedom and independence of the press and other information media are hereby guaranteed.” 
  However, what happens in reality is a far cry from the spirit and dictates of this blueprint. How can such guarantees be real when arsonist and murderers roam about freely to catty out their contemptuous atrocities against the private media? Since all avenues have been unsuccessful to ensure the protection of journalists, it is clear that one must draw international public attention to our plight and implore massive condemnation of all the aggressive official measures raised to bring violators of free press to justice. [In short we need the help of Amnesty and other voices to protect us.]
  Is it possible to act courageously as a journalist in the Gambia today? Perhaps, though it is surely true that our experiences—with the murder of our brave friend, the torching of our printing press, the imprisonment and torture and threats that reach us and do not abate—have taught us that there are limits to what we and our family members are able to endure, especially when we are not able to do our work we know is our duty to do. As years of intimidation build, stress finds less and less relief as every possible effort is made to push on and report and publish is exhausted. And when time again those efforts are foiled by government intervention, when personal safety is threatened, the courage to seek another way, from another place, can become the force of change.
  So today, I will continue my work from abroad though my heart is in the Gambia. Today I ask you to lend your voice to our cause. We need your help. Thank you.
   
   
   
   
    
Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 (Archive on Tuesday, May 30, 2006)
Posted by PANDERRYMBAI  Contributed by PANDERRYMBAI
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