Mr. Sillah,
Thank you for joining the ongoing debate about the freedom of the press
during the past 7 years as compared to yester-years. I for one will never
deny that there had been problems between the present government and the
"private" media. My emphasis during this debate will be mainly on the
"Private" media as the public media during the first republic was virtually
non-existent and therefore not worth comparing and contrasting with what
prevails as of now.
Having said that, I would like to tell you why I believe that the private
media enjoys more freedom now than ever before. However before going into
that, I would like to ask you whether you are telling me that the government
printer is prohibited from printing for the private media. I am very much
interested in knowing about that as well as from when it had been prohibited
from printing for the private press.
Mr. Sillah, the fact that people like you are risking your security and
reporting the news as you see fit, despite all the alleged harassment, is
clear testimony to the development of the private media during the past
seven years. Unless you are in denial, you will agree with me that some of
the articles being published today would have landed many a journalist in
jail for duriing the PPP era. Secondly, Mr. Sillah, do not mis-construe my
stance about what ensues as condoning whatever may have been wrongly done to
some of you. All I am saying is that what generally goes around comes
around. You will not tell me that those who took you to the NIA or
interogated you are not Gambians or were they non-Gambians? Fact of the
matter is, it takes two to tango. It is very easy to blame the government
and conveniently forget that some of us are inherently wicked and are
capable of anything and at the same time there are others who want to insist
on their way as the only way. That brings about unnecessary confrontation.
Another thing is that decree 70/71 that some of you so much detest has never
dettered any of you and thus has so far not been used against any media
house at least punitively to my knowledge or am I wrong in that assertion?
As for the heavy taxes, all I can say is that our economy has been and is
still tax based and as such heavy taxation is a part of our life at least
for now. As to how it has specifically affected the private media, my guess
is that it has not significantly affected the circulation of the print media
nor the viability of the audio media or has it? Please tell us more about
this heavy taxation to enable me comment on it. I know for a fact that
certain items and businesses are equally if not more heavily taxed and these
businesses are not media related. Therefore taxation cannot be used as proof
of harassment of the private media.
Thirdly, Mr. Sillah, I am someone who happens to believe that when paradigms
shift everything goees to zero. I have also learnt, long ago, that possitive
engagement has a better chance of solving problems or mis-understandings
than confrontation. You see; what some of you fail to realise is that none
of the things that some of you proclaim to want to see in The Gambia cannot
come to fruition unless there is stability and law and order. You gave some
statistics of the number arrests of journalists during the 32 year PPP reign
and the seven year AFPRC/APRC reign but failed to give us certain important
factors such as the number of media houses during the respective periods,
the awareness of the public as well as the population. Whereas you gave us
some idea of who the victims of these arrests during the past seven years
are and the number of times most were arrested, you failed to do the same
for those 15 arrests during the 32 year year PPP regime. You told us that
about 13 of you accounted for the 35 arrests during the past seven years;
can you enlighten us as to who accounted for the 15 arrests during the past
PPP regime? Do you remember the late Femi Jeng who died in police custody
during the PPP regime simply because he happened to be on duty during
Kukoi's failed coupe attempt and was used by the rebels?
Finally, Mr. Sillah, all that I am saying is that we all have different
priorities. As far as I am concerned the abject poverty, ill health and
ignorance in our midst is more of a priority than the utopian state that
some of you believe we can attain while we are this poor. I do not also
usually want to comment on individual cases especially when the individuals
concerned are not at liberty or are unavailable to respond to how I percieve
their cases. As such, I don't want to comment on the citizen FM case or the
attempted arson of Radio One FM unless you are at liberty to tell me more
about them.
Have a good day, Gassa.
_________________________________________________________________
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