UDP Reacts To GPU Six Conviction

The conviction of EBRIMA SAWANEH and his colleagues last week is the climax of the continuous erosion of the freedom of speech which started with APRC decrees No 70 and 71.

Whilst there is no dispute that every government to enact laws and provide for the appropriate mechanism for these, no government has the moral authority to deprive any class of citizens the right of freedom of expression of views and opinion by the use of archaic colonial legislations that have lost relevance in their countries of origin.

Media Practitioners(the Private) press have valiantly warded off the evil effects of decrees No 70&71 and the Newspapers(Amendment) Act 2004 by the proprietors and managers of various media houses fulfilling the stringent conditions stipulated in these Decrees and Act.

The current administration in the Gambia that falsely prides itself as a democratic one took umbrage under the now repealed section 210 of the constitution to enact the ill-fated National Media Commission Act which itself was repealed.

The administration’s inability to use the Media Commission Act to suppress the free press in the Gambia led it to craft other obnoxious amendments to the Criminal Code in 2004 by providing for mandatory six months imprisonment without an option of fine for Sedition and Possession of seditious publication redefined libel (criminal) and provided for “a term of imprisonment of not less than six months without an option of fine”.

The 2004 amendment created the offence of false publication and broadcasting imposing the same punishment as it does for sedition and libel. Realising that the 2004 amendment to the Criminal Code has not produced the desired negative effect on the independent media, the administration enacted yet another press muzzling legislation in 2005 which amended sections 51,178 and 181A of the Criminal Code by increasing the sentences provided for to range from a fine of not less than D50, 000 to no more than D250, 000 or imprisonment of not less than two years and not more than five years.

These amendments show how the administration has resorted to the use of legislation to scuttle the growth of a free and vibrant press in the Gambia. It shows how an unscrupulous regime can give an aura of legality and lawfulness to its objective of restricting freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. No journalist exercising his right to publish any material and no person exercising his right to freedom of speech and expression has a right to malign others or without justification defame others. It is equally true that no one whatever his position in society has a right to make any statement that is derogatory, contemptuous or insulting to any person. Those who enjoy certain constitutional privileges and immunities must be circumspect and well measured in their remarks about other people.

We do not question the legality of the conviction and sentence imposed on Mr. Sawaneh and his colleagues. We however question the moral justification for their trial and subsequent conviction and sentence when one considers that the two media houses reproduced the reaction to some aspects of the President’s interview with KEBBA DIBBA of GRTS.

We are also concerned with the custodial sentence because it is bound to have adverse effects on the media houses these imprisoned journalists work for as well as the Gambia Press Union. Messers Sawaneh, Pap Saine and Pa Modou Faal all working for the Point Newspaper whilst Sam Sarr and Bai Emil Touray both work with Foroyaa Newspaper. Any objective and dispassionate on looker cannot but conclude that the sentences are meant to close down these Media Houses.

Sarata Jabbie Dibba, Bai Emil Touray, and Pa Modou Faal are respectively the Vice President, Secretary General and Treasurer of the Gambia Press Union. The custodial sentence imposed on them coupled with the absence of the President of the GPU from The Gambia will greatly hamper the effective functioning of the GPU-the result a press union on paper.

The other moral dimension about the custodial sentence relates to Sarata Jabbie Dibba’s participation in the publication of the seditious and defamatory matter might be, consideration ought to have been given to her peculiar condition. The Children’s Act does envisage people in Sarata Jabbie Dibba’s situation and accordingly directs all courts in sentencing an expectant or a nursing mother to consider the imposition of a non institutional (custodial) sentence as an alternative measure to imprisonment.

The trend in the world is to ‘de-criminalize speech.’ This is in accord with all modern Constitutions. The Gambia should not be an exception to this. The Gambia proposed to and lobbied other African governments to agree to the adoption of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights-the Banjul Charter. This Charter provides for freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

We need not to move beyond rhetoric and give concrete expression to our commitment to respect the rights of the media and media practitioners. We must do all it takes to demonstrate to our African brothers and others outside African that the Gambia is a deserving host for the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies as well as the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

The Jammeh administration should as a matter of urgency introduce a bill in the National Assembly to repeal these oppressive legislations that curb the freedom of speech and the press.

England, unlike the Gambia, does not have a written constitution to enforce and interprete; indeed it has no Bill of Rights in the 1880s to enforce but a distinguished Judge in dealing with sedition and freedom of speech said’ You will recollect how valuable a blessing the liberty of the press is to all of us, and sure I am that the liberty will meet no injury-suffer no diminution at you hands”.

Let the Jammeh administration take note of this and as a first step to halt injury to the liberty of the press order the immediate release of Mr. Sawaneh and his colleagues. The immediate release of these great servants of the public will not only assure press freedom but will also unite SARATA JABBIE DIBBA with her seven month old baby who is in great maternal care and comfort and this is a right every Gambian child is entitled to.

UNITED DEMOCRATIC PARTY

SECRETARIAT, BANJUL

10 AUGUST 2009

A Challenging Year for Journalists

The Point Editorial

This year has been a challenging one for journalism in The Gambia. So far, it has been one court case after another, culminating last Thursday in the conviction and sentencing to a two-year jail term of six journalists. It all began with the false publication charge against The Point newspaper this February. Barely had that case got underway when the citizenship of the paper’s managing editor Mr Pap Saine was deemed suspect. He was arraigned before the Banjul Magistrates’ Court to prove his citizenship. He was eventually acquitted and discharged – just as the false publication was to be dropped later.

But Mr Saine hardly had time to celebrate his court victory. He had scarcely reached The Point offices when he was invited to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters for questioning over a publication in The Point’s issue of 15 June 2009. He was there with Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, Ebrima Sawaneh, Pa Modou Faal and Emil Touray. Later they were joined by Sam Sarr and Abubakar Saidykhan. Sarr, managing editor of Foroyaa newspaper, had published the same article a few days earlier. All of them were later charged with a six-count charge of conspiracy, sedition and criminal defamation.

While this case was going on, another journalist was also sentenced to a fine of fifty thousand dalasis for publishing false information.

Only one of the seven journalists (Abubakar Saidykhan) charged with conspiracy, sedition and criminal defamation was set free as it shown during that he was simply trying to take photos while his boss Sam Sarr was arrested.

It is superfluous to go into the details of the trial here; it was like a soap opera that held the nation spellbound while it lasted. Every night, people stayed glued to their TV sets to catch up on the latest developments in the case, just as they besieged newsstands every morning to keep abreast of the turns and twists in the case. In the defining moments of the trial, both Saine and Sarr asserted that they published the said article “in the interest of democracy and press freedom”, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human and Peoples’ Rights, and to promote the free flow of information as the country’s constitution upholds divergent views. Both men were strong and resilient and inspiring and noble in their most trying moment yet.

We are grateful to all those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us during our ordeal - friends, relatives, and well wishers. Your presence, words of encouragement and material support were the tonic that kept us going throughout the trial – and still keep us going into the unknown future. Sooner or later we shall look back to Thursday, 6 August 2009 as the day when Gambian journalism was re-built rather than broken.

“Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to bear.”


Marcus Aurelius

Unacceptable Affront on Press Freedom

The Media-for-Democracy in Nigeria group (MFD), comprising MediaRights Agenda (MRA), Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER),Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) and the International Press Centre(IPC), hereby decry the jailing of six Gambian journalists on August6, 2009.

The affected journalists including three officials of the Gambia PressUnion (GPU), Sarata Jabbi Dibba (Vice President); Emil Touray(Secretary General) and Pa Modou Faal (Treasurer); as well as The Point Newspaper’s Pap Saine (Publisher); Ebou Sawaneh (Editor) and SamSarr, Editor of Foroyaa newspaper were all sentenced to a two-year jail term and fined USD 10,000 each for alleged sedition anddefamation by a High Court.

The MFD calls on Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua to show leadershipas the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)by intervening in the matter to secure a reversal of this unwholesomejudgment particularly in the light of the fact that a Nigerian judgehas been used to perpetrate this travesty of justice. We call on West African, African and international human and civilrights movements not to spare any effort towards ensuring that theunwelcome judgment is reversed as it constitutes unacceptable affronton press freedom in the country.

We surely cannot keep silent in theface of this grave injustice and assault on the union and journalisticrights of the jailed colleagues.

It is indeed worrisome and certainly provocative that the allegedsedition and defamation arose from the jailed journalists’ persistentdemand on Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to account for the gunning todeath of Deyda Hydara on December 16, 2004.

The killers of Hydara, former Publisher of The Point and well knowncritic of President Jammeh’s government, are yet to be apprehendedfive years on. The MFD demands the unconditional release of the six journalists.President Jammeh should realize that neither their imprisonment norother forms of assault on the media in the Gambia will stop theinternational media community from demanding that his governmentaccounts for the killing of Hydara by finding the killers.

GPU Six Jailing Unconstitutional

Says MFWA, WABA


The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) said on Monday that the charges against the six jailed Gambian Journalists were unconstitutional and untenable.


The two therefore appealed to President John Evans Atta Mills to intervene directly through diplomatic means to get President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia to release the journalists immediately, end repression of free speech and stop the gross human rights abuses in the Gambia.


The six were tried on six counts of "sedition" and criminal "defamation" charges and convicted on August 6, 2009 to a total of eight years imprisonment to run concurrently without any option of a fine.

They were also ordered to pay an amount of 250,000 Gambian Dalasis (about 18,000 dollars) on each of the remaining two counts or serve another two years on each of the counts.

The charges stemmed from a June 11, 2009 press statement that criticised President Jammeh over comments he had made slandering Deyda Hydara, co-proprietor and editor of the "The Point" who was murdered in 2004 by unknown assailants.

At a joint press conference to register their protest against The Gambia authorities' decision to jail the journalists, one of whom is a nursing mother, Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA, said they were appealing to President Mills to intervene based on the current MOU on the murdered Ghanaians.

Prof. Karikari said the repressive regime of President Jammeh had held the country to ransom over the last 14 years, and that Ghana as a peace loving and democratic country could not sit by for the situations to explode before she used her limited resources to send soldiers there for peacekeeping.

"It has undermined the independence of almost all national institutions including the judiciary, which has been bastardized. Judges have been dismissed arbitrarily by the regime and the repressive conditions within the judiciary are forcing some to resign and take up other jobs," he added.

Prof Karikari said the growing horrific human rights situation in neighbouring Gambia might roll back progress in the sub region if not checked.

"We contended that if steps are not taken for a peaceful improvement in the situation in the Gambia, the country will be propelled into a violent conflict by bad governance. The tension and fear prevailing in the Gambia can only lead to this unwanted eventuality," he added.

Prof. Karikari said they would send a formal request to President Mills, as well as to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the Chairman of ECOWAS, and the ECOWAS Council of the Wise to make the same appeal.

Mr Akoto Ampaw, a Lawyer and Media Activist, said a team was in the Gambia three weeks ago in solidarity with the jailed journalists and had concluded that they were likely to be convicted because there were no laws in the Gambia.

He said it was the responsibility of everybody to act in solidarity with colleagues in other parts of West Africa.

Meanwhile, the West African Bar Association has also condemned the conviction and called on the African Union and ECOWAS to take urgent steps to compel President Jammeh to release the imprisoned journalists.

It also asked him to comply with the order of the ECOWAS court made on June 5, 2008 for their immediate release.

GNA

The First Week Without Sam Sarr

Editorial Foroyaa
It is like a funeral. People are pouring from all corners of the country to express their shock and concern. Some cannot hold their tears. The students who used to have evening classes in physics, Mathematics and other subjects are now in limbo.

Social science teaches that prisons are correctional institutions where those whose behaviour falls short of the good standards set by society as lawful behaviour are kept for sometime to facilitate their rehabilitation. Once this rehabilitation is effected they are placed back into society to live productive and contributive life.

Those people with exemplary characters who are incarcerated are referred to in political science as prisoners of conscience. Such people are those who stand up for their beliefs regardless of the peril or the cost. Sam Sarr had an honours degree in Physics and Mathematics 33 years ago. He taught A level and O level courses at Gambia High School for over a decade preparing the future generation to become the builders of a society of liberty and prosperity. The Generation he taught is gradually taking charge of the destiny of this country. They are now in their late thirties and forties.

Despite the fact that his education was grounded in the physics and mathematics Sam realized that a Physicist and Mathematician without social conscience could make instrument of mass destruction just to commit genocide against a whole population. He was convinced that education should go hand in hand with the nurturing of the social conscience.

History has taught him that a half educated person without social conscience is a virtual criminal. Such a person would live only for himself at the expense of others. Such a person would not hesitate to perpetrate all sorts of injustice against his or her fellow human beings without any feeling of guilt or remorse.

This is why Sam taught his students to have social conscience through plays like “belful na bone na throat” meaning that “Foolish pride is a bone in the throat”; “Habatee amut Ngering Haajalo la isi” “pomposity is the root to social discord and social conflict” and so on and so forth.

His plays sought to teach his students to embrace humility and detest greed, love truth and abhor falsehood, cherish justice and shun injustice. He wanted their hearts to speak the language of compassion so that they would not make any righteous person to suffer for promoting truth and justice.

We hope that as the students he taught go to their beds each night they would ask themselves whether they are utilizing their offices to promote justice or injustice, freedom or servitude, emancipation or enslavement, humility or pomposity, temperance or greed, poverty or prosperity.

If they are promoting justice, freedom, emancipation, humility, temperance and prosperity they are assured a final resting place in the valley of the exalted for eternity. On the other hand, if they live on this earth to perpetrate injustice, servitude, enslavement, pomposity, greed and poverty they are assured a final resting place in the dustbin of history.

Sam belongs to the category of people who works day and night to wipe tears from the face of the living instead of making them to shed tears. He belongs to the exalted category of society. He may undergo trials and tribulations but sooner rather than later history will absolve him; sooner rather than later we will re unite with him in grace and glory. This is the verdict of justice and common sense and it is incontrovertible.