It is telling that at this stage of things – when all we have is a BILL –
opponents of the piece of ‘Toilet Paper’ are NOT talking about lobbying
Parliament or Yaya. Opponents of this latest Decree are instead readying
themselves for the fait accompli. Everyone with a functioning brain knows
that the ‘rubber stamps’ at the Parliament are going to pass this ‘Bill’ and
Yaya is going to sign it into ‘law’. We all know that (excluding the
Opposition in Parliament) all we have is a bunch of uncouth semi-illiterates
and incorrigible praise-singers like Fatoumatta Jahumpa and SM Dibba. All
these people need to know is that the illegal government is tabling a Bill
and Yaya supports it. That’s all. Once the mental midgets figure that much,
they do NOT want to hear debates and contrary ideas. Taking this piece of
thrash to Parliament is a waste of everyone’s time. I am glad that the Press
Union realizes that and is thinking about the Decree and NOT the Bill.

Again Joseph Joof adds credence to Ousainou Darboe’s charge that the former
is NOT a real lawyer. Joof passed through the back-door to become a lawyer.
But that’s another matter. Tabling such a ludicrous bill before Parliament
is an attestation of Joof’s ineptitude. As pointed out by some non-lawyers
in Gambian newspapers (I think it was The Point), the illegal government
does NOT need to set up a TRIBUNAL to stifle journalists in the country.
This is what this piece of thrash is all about. As gleaned by the press, the
government is trying to hide the fact, but ten-year-olds can figure out what
is going on here.

It is just pathetic how these morons are leading us to the abyss. This again
shows the chronic problems we have to contend with in Africa. We had a
brutal Dictator like Rawlings used intellectual prostitutes in Ghana to pass
such repugnant laws to further Rawlings’ Dictatorial policies. When our
thugs usurped power in 1994, Rawlings exported to them his prostitutes to
come create the same havoc in our country. The repugnant Ghanaian laws were
incorporated into our own laws to address totally unrelated situations.

In The Gambia, the private press does NOT have a problem with the government
per se. It is the government that has a problem with a TRANSPARENT and
INDEPENDENT Press. You hardly read a Gambian newspaper without seeing
comments to the effect that journalists tried to solicit information from
mandarins and AFPRC/APRC decision-makers just to be met with hostility from
the Dictatorship and fear from mandarins that do NOT want to speak to the
press. I mean EVERY DAY you pick up a newspaper you will see that
journalists (from The Independent and The Point) are working darn hard to
cover the ‘government’s side’. But the ‘government’ does NOT want to talk to
them. This is the PROBLEM ‘government’ has with the journalists. This is NOT
the journalists’ problem. It is the illegal outfit ruining our country that
has a problem. They are the ones that need to change. They are the ones that
REFUSE to talk to journalists. When journalists conduct their CIVIC DUTY and
REPORT the NEWS, the ‘government’ gets upset because in the government’s
mind its ‘side’ has not been ‘adequately’ featured. But whose fault is this?
Who refused to talk to who? When has the AFPRC/APRC government ever
successfully sued a Point or Independent journalist for libel?

Joseph Joof and his cohorts know that they CANNOT muzzle the press by
following the laws of the country that ALREADY ADEQUATELY provides for
policing of the press. We already have laws that govern defamation (libel
and slander from the media). Those laws are harsh enough. Apart from civil
penalties in the form of damages, those laws can get a journalist
incarcerated for criminal libel. So, we are NOT dealing with laws without
teeth and laws that are unfairly favorable to journalists. We are dealing
with well-tested laws that impose stringent obligations on the journalists
while at the same time giving journalists adequate protection from
arbitrariness. The Illegal government now wants to throw those laws out of
the window. It wants draconian laws imposing stringent obligations on
journalists, but it does NOT want to accord the journalists the protection
they deserve because they are carrying such a fundamental duty in the
society. The government wants to have its cake and eat it.

By introducing this TRIBUNAL (Kangaroo Court), Joseph Joof is trying to set
up a court; which I am not even sure if the Constitution allows them to do
in this manner. But you start talking Constitutions with the Dictatorship,
you are engaged in a futile exercise. These thugs do NOT respect the law.
Now, Joseph Joof wants the HEAVY Burden of our defamation laws (heavy
damages, fines and jail time) be placed on the journalists but not the
protection of an INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY.

Society at large should fight this. A vibrant PRIVATE (transparent and
independent) press is a NECESSITY in any civilized society. Journalists
SACRIFICE for the greater good by reporting the NEWS in a Dictatorship. It
goes without saying that it is very important that the public be informed
about the life-changing decisions and actions of the Dictatorship. The
public should therefore fight against any thing or anybody that wants to
prevent the press from reporting the NEWS. By setting up a TRIBUNAL and
populating same with Yaya cronies, you are telling journalists to forget
about fairness and the rule of law. With the powers that this TRIBUNAL has,
it would be foolish for journalists to expose themselves to the whims of the
APRC sycophants that would certainly dominate the TRIBUNAL. Forget about the
token representation of the journalists in the TRIBUNAL. Rest assured that
that lone voice would always be out-voted by the majority APRC cronies Yaya
appoints. If anyone believes that a TRIBUNAL appointed by Yaya and his
cronies is going to ‘defy’ Yaya and side with the TRUTH and private
journalists in the dispensation of its function, that person must need
his/her head examined. This is nothing short of legalized lynching.

Granted that we do NOT have an independent judiciary as we speak, but even
this inadequate judiciary is lot better than the TRIBUNAL being contemplated
by the Dictatorship. As the Dumo et al case shows, there is a limit to the
lawlessness the courts can engage in. No single judge in the country can
convict Dumo et al in OPEN court on the basis of the flimsy evidence the
government has. So what do they do? They just drag the case. The moral here
is that this case shows both the inadequacies in our justice system and the
limited protection still provided to citizens because we have a few gutsy
private lawyers still left in the country. If we have a TRIBUNAL led by Yaya
cronies such as Fatoumatta Jahumpa or Marcel Thomasi, you think these
vindictive cowards will have some semblance of legal etiquette and listen to
private lawyers arguing for journalists from the Point and Independent?
There is even no guarantee that journalists would be allowed effective legal
representation. What is going to happen to plaintiffs that bring frivolous
complaints against journalists that journalists have to vigorously defend
against? Who bears the costs of such spurious suits? This is just
outrageous.

The stance the journalists took is the appropriate position to take in this
matter. No one is arguing against upholding high standards in the private
press. As already pointed out, there are already adequate laws to ensure
that we have a great private press. I might be wrong on this, but to my
knowledge only Observer (the government’s mouthpiece) has been forced to
recant erroneous stories it reported. They are the only people bringing the
press down, if you ask me. They should have been the most preoccupied by
these draconian laws. But you do NOT hear them complaining. Because they
know their ‘friends’ would be the ones filing the complaints and doing the
judging at the TRIBUNAL. What they are failing to see, like all sycophants,
is that while these laws are durable, this illegal government will soon be
gotten rid of. When that happens, how would Observer feel if they are hoist
before a TRIBUNAL that does NOT include their ‘friends’ that is going to
look at the sloppy reporting of the paper?

It is good that the journalists are NOT ruling out self-regulation. That is
the ONLY way to go. The GPU should regulate its members. Period. The GPU can
set up its own disciplinary process that would address complaints from the
general public. The adjudicatory body that is envisaged here can comprise of
members of the general public from all walks of life. Each time a complaint
is brought, a subcommittee comprising of two or three people can hear the
complaint and then make recommendations to the GPU’s Disciplinary Committee.
That Committee would in turn be answerable to the GPU Board. This involves
an elaborate and comprehensive (transparent) mechanism that CANNOT be
exhaustively discussed here. But the bottom-line is that the GPU
(journalists) with the help of the general public (members of the
adjudicatory subcommittees) will be able to police itself. Furthermore, the
buck does NOT stop with the GPU. Aggrieved parties can still proceed to
regular courts to adjudicate their grievances. This was NOT clear from the
proposed TRIBUNAL. Is there a provision that allows journalists to go to
court and seek the repudiation of the TRIBUNAL’S rulings?

In conclusion, I would also want to register my staunch opposition to this
latest Decree from the Dictatorship. It is incumbent on the whole society to
ensure that the ‘government’ does NOT erode the protection that our current
defamation laws and the Constitution accord to the journalists. If the
government is interested in dialog (which I doubt), the journalists should
come up with their own self-regulatory framework that would enhance the
tremendous job they are already doing and at the same time protect
themselves from the whims of APRC sycophants. The PROBLEM the ‘government’
has with the press can only be solved by the ‘government’ being more open to
the press and stop the cowardice and arrogance that currently prevent the
free flow of information. The stance of the GPU is an admirable one.
KB

PS: after writing this piece, I saw Ebrima Sillah’s forward of the actual
Bill. A perusal of this piece of thrash even got me more pissed off. I shall
look at it further and make some more comments if need be. I CANNOT believe
that Joseph Joof would table a Decree that EXCLUDES courts from deciding
defamation cases; EMPOWERS an ILLEGAL TRIBUNAL to use NIA agents to ransack
journalists’ homes and offices; EMPOWERS an ILLEGAL TRIBUNAL to FORCE
journalists to reveal their sources if they report on information the
Dictatorship wants to hide from the public because it exposes their criminal
behavior. This is just outrageous. If this passes as is, JOURNALISM as we
know it in The Gambia and civilized societies, will be DEAD.



>From: Ebrima Sillah <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Media Commission Bill:The GPU's Stances
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 16:54:48 +0100
>
>Ladies and Gentlemen
>
>Allow me as the public relations secretary of the
>Gambia Press Union(GPU) to thank you all for your
>words of concern with regards to thie meida commission
>bill. As far as we at the Gambia Press Union are
>concern, the content of this bill is unconstitutional
>and we are not going to cooperate with the government
>on its implimentation. GPU as the umbrella
>organisation for all the media houses and
>practitioners in this country is suppose to be a
>member of this commission/tribunal to try the
>journalists. But we have already decided that we will
>not take up our seat on the commission. All our
>members have also agreed to defy the terms of the
>bill. The government of the Gambia has two
>options:either to allow journalists to carry on with
>their duties as enshrined in the constitution or close
>down all the private media houses in the country and
>send us to mile11. Our position that this is an
>unconstitutional attempt is non-necogiatible and
>unchangeable. I will have time to send you the content
>of the bill by God willing tomorrow.
>
>__________________________________________________
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