Tombong,

The public media belongs to all Gambians and should be shared by all ,
especially at this juncture where there is need for all parties to inform
the people about their political agenda to enable them to make an inform
choice. GRTS posted Jammeh's interview with the EU/ACP courier
magazine ,which i forwarded to the L for everyone to read.How about
some consistency here. Open the air waves to all with equal access and
coverage for all. When Tamsir Jallow was asked about denying opposition
access to the public media his response was they were not denied equal
access to the public media. According to Tamsir , equal access already
exists as the print media favors the opposition. This type of remark does
not make sense.Is Tamsir saying since the newspapers favors the opposition
therefore the public media should favor the government. I'm sure the print
media will be more than willing to cover APRC functions or events.

Open the air waves to all.

Beran



>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: GRTS and the 2001 Campaign.
>Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 10:09:38 EDT
>
>In 1996 when the chairman of the IEC wrote to the director of GRTS
>outlining
>the modalities for granting equal access to public airwaves for the
>presidential contestants, the director summoned his senior staff and
>essentially told them that GRTS does not work for the IEC and was hence
>under
>no obligation to respond or pay heed to the legal and vital question of
>equal
>and fair access. He told them he was going to send it to his ministry
>(works
>and communications) for further instructions. There the folks too passed
>the
>buck and said they were going to send it the secretary general for further
>instructions. If you are tempted to ask why a legally stipulated
>requirement
>for the Gambian people to hear all of the people aspiring to be their
>leaders
>is being cynically tied in silly bureaucratic knots, the answer is they had
>no intention of providing the access in the first place. The scheme began
>with the IEC who were just interested in the paper trail and never did a
>thing to enforce one of their key mandates. The same scenario is playing
>out
>in the run up to the elections this year. GRTS under Tombong Saidy has
>gotten
>manifestly more unprofessional than it was in 1996. He too has no intention
>of fairly and accurately covering the campaigns and will not provide even
>meaningful access much less parity. He is simply too heavily invested in
>this
>murderous regime to contemplate disseminating accurate information. Infact
>Mr
>Saidy sees and conducts himself as part of the government's public
>relations
>team. He would occasionally pretend to cover the other side like the
>Alliance
>launch in Saturday. In the few instances he shows up to cover the
>opposition,
>his team employs blatant camera and reporting tricks meant to minimize the
>impact of the event to the viewers and listeners. For example his reporter
>covering the Brikama rally deliberately decided not to do any voice cut
>aways
>of the speakers and instead did a voice over in which he characterized the
>rally. The same event was covered by the BBC and true to professional form
>we
>did actually hear the speakers' sound bites spliced into the reporters
>coverage in a manner that conveyed the essence of the event to anyone with
>a
>way to tune to the BBC. The viewing and listening audience deserved to hear
>alliance members speaking to them directly. The reporters at GRTS are
>thoroughly compromised people who can't convincingly frame the news for the
>rest of the people. The only viable alternative coverage lies with the
>independent radio and newspapers who unfortunately don't have a national
>reach. They nonetheless reach close to half of the electorate which is the
>number resident in the greater Banjul area. My ideal solution would be to
>have a televised version of Mr Christensens Sunday newshour in which GRTS
>can
>set up cameras in his studio as he goes at it with is guests. This way
>viewers and listeners can get the spectrum of views and access to the
>politicians in a forum that permits exchanges among the hosts, guests and
>the
>audience. Yahya Jammeh who does not speak to members of the private media
>outside tightly controlled conditions can choose to continue being obdurate
>when it comes to discussing the acute national problems we are facing. I
>don't expect him to come to Mr christensen's studio and talk directly to
>people he has brought untold misery to and has conveniently lied to for the
>last 7 years. The rest of the politicians who eagerly come should be heard
>by
>the entire country and there exists an outfit bought and paid for by the
>Gambian people that can do just that. It is called GRTS.
>Karamba
>
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