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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