Mass media in
Gambia and Sierra Leone compared
Mohammed
Legally-Cole
Sierra
Leone where I am coming from, where the role of the present
modern mass media is very tedious, journalists find it very hard
and bleak to move ahead with the trend of time. This is because
journalists have been faced with all types of draconian laws to
streamline and muzzled Press Freedom in that country, coupled up
with a number of unprofessional in the media, corruption in high
places, in most cases journalists failed to perform their noble
role professionally.
The Fourth
Estate as it aptly called, comprises of the Print media
(Newspapers, Periodical Magazines etc) and Electronics Media
(Radio, Television, Internet etc.), the mass media has a major
role to play in the development of a nation’s democratization
and Good Governance. The role of the mass media is to Educate,
Entertain and inform by create awareness to the nation in order
to bring about positive changes to the livelihood of the people.
This is very much evident in the role of the mass media in The
Gambia.
Sierra Leone,
the history of the media had been on the stands for over hundred
years, while the history of the media in The Gambia was
short-lived. Sierra Leone’s first local Newspapers called the
Sierra Leone Gazette was first published in 1808. The media in
The Gambia had three faces namely; the Independent era, the
first republic and the present Republic.
The media in
The Gambia had been playing its role to inform, entertain and to
educate by creating awareness to its people since the late
1950’s and 1960’s during at a time which The Gambia was not
having any viable newspapers for the general public. Some of the
private/Independent newspapers in The Gambia between
Pre-Independent to the Independent Era. The Senegambia Reporter
– (1953-68) by Edward .F. Small; The Nation (1964-2000) by
William D. Colley; The Gambia Weekly News (1967) by Findin
Dally; The Progressive News (1966-77) by Mbacke Njie, The
Gambian Onward (1968) by Rudolph Allen; The Echo, The Vanguard
M.B. Jones and J.W. Bidwell-Bright; The Gambia Outlook (1970’s)
by M.B. Jones and The Gambian (1974-1994) by Nyang Thomas.
The efforts of
the journalists and their newspapers establishment in The Gambia
in the colonial administration was a struggle as most of them
were squeezed as “anti-colonialists” and for them to have a
space to speak out was a challenge and a struggled they fought
for, in what the modern media enjoy today as Freedom of the
Press attained. As part of their additional functions, they had
contributed immensely to the Independent of The Gambia and the
democratization of the country in all its forms.
The mass media
in those days were binded with a task of the truth. They became
the watchdog and also searching for malpractices, malfunctioning
of officials in authority or those holding public offices, they
did not compromised them because the action of the mass media in
those days are geared towards national development. The major
significant fact of the mass media was that the
Private/Independent media was able to survived the trend of time
from Pre and Colonial Era, which was a major development of the
mass media landscape that had resulted to the birth of more
private/independent newspapers in the First Republic, which had
winded the horizon of the Freedom of Expression of the modern
mass media that differed the privileged class to the ordinary
individuals.
It could be recalled that
during One Party System of Government the First Republic under
the leadership of Sir Dawda Jawara, Gambia first president
maintained a status quo. The Jawara administration was able to
control the country’s only newspaper, The Gambia News Bulleten.
The fact that several private/independent newspapers were
able to waged a relentless struggle against colonial rule and
the first republic with their pens, was a manifestation that the
tradition of crusading and advocacy of today’s journalists in
the present republic has it model stemmed from the past.
Sierra Leone,
where Press Freedom had struggled to survive the trend of time,
The Gambia however, Press Freedom usually collapse under severe
socio-economic pressure, lack of adverts to sustain the media,
lack of newsreel and other printing materials, poor marketing
strategy and poor circulation of newspapers also resulted to
lack of guarantee to sustainance, salary for staffs and
Government pressure to muzzle the press, especially when
journalists created awareness on the socio- economic development
of the country that will not go down well with ruling
government, which sometimes resulted into court action for
libelous act for mis-information. These are some of the
problems faced by the mass media in The Gambia. These problems
are very much similar in some cases in the three faces of the
Republic namely; Independent Era, First Republic and the present
Republic.
The
relationship of the veteran journalists and the administration
of the first Republic were cordial during the struggle for
Independence. In most cases when the media refusals dance to the
tune of the administration of the first Republic, they were
termed as bad seeds and enemy of the state. These strain in
relationship with members of the mass media in the present
Republic today are very much evidence.
The history
of radio in The Gambia began in the 1960’s, with the founding of
the national radio station, just after Independence. The Gambia
was a model in Africa as it was the deemed a revolutionary in
the area of radio pluralism. The Gambia was the only country in
Africa, where foreign private radio stations were allowed to
operate on the airwave.
This began in
1967, at a time when many African countries were trying and
striving hard to developed their own national radio stations.
This new radio waves came in from the sea and was called Radio
SYD which was the world’s first radio station broadcasting from
international waters, anchored off-shore The Gambia coast. It
started its adventure in 1959 in Sweden and Denmark. A ship
called Cheeta, installed with a cargo of radio transmitter
equipment sailed through Northern Europe via the Canary Island
and later to The Gambia, where the rush of Swedish tourists were
asking for a musical radio station. At that time, Radio Gambia,
which was the national Station, only broadcasted four hours
daily on short wave. Radio SYD seized the opportunity to
negotiate for a medium frequency band that was listened to in
Dakar Senegal, which was transmitting Pop music and became very
famous in the Senegambia region in the 70’s.
However in the
late 1990’s (the Present Republic), The Gambia newspaper and
radio scene really began to grow, when two more independent
radio stations namely; Philanthropic Gambians founded Radio One
FM and Citizen FM. Radio and both station were the first
community radio stations to compete with Radio Gambia, the state
own. Station. And also five other independent newspapers were
envisage namely, Daily Observer (1992) – by Kenneth Best, a
Liberian veteran journalist, the Independent (1999)- by Baba
Galleh, Gambia News and Reports (1992) – by Swaebu Conateh, The
Enquirer (1999) – by Musa Sherrif, The Point (1991) – by Deyda
Hydara and Foroya (1987) – by Halifa Sallah, these newspapers
were able to make a firm grip in order to sustained it news
stern up to date, only the Independent that was closed down by
governement.
However both of
the community radio FM stations were been subjected to wrath
with Government Authorities due to information they broadcasted.
Citizen FM, which was the leading private radio in terms of
audience, was shut down in 1998, when it reported an issue
linking the National Intelligent Agency (NIA) to a counterfeit
scheme. State authorities on the grounds of unpaid taxes shut
down the station. After three years of court battle between the
FM station and the government, Citizen won the cases on real
breach of Human Rights. In October 2000, Citizen FM returned to
the airwave and after few months’ station was later closed down
again in 2001 for announcing result of 2001 Presidential
Election.
The
relationship between the Mass Media, Journalists, particularly
those of private Radio and their proprietors/ Owners and the
government was still tensed and it could be recalled that George
Christensen – Proprietor of Radio One FM had had several
dealings with the Gambian Police Force and was not always in a
good circumstances. Radio One FM was ransacked in 2001 and one
of it journalists house was burnt down, though the government
had issued a statement that it will never tolerated such attack
on the press and the president of the Republic also called for
better relations between the media and the government in the bid
to maintain peace in the country, and also in the sub-region but
these attacks continued unabated and two weeks later Radio One
FM called for the worst, when men said to be military men struck
again harder while the radio station was broadcasting live.
These attackers managed to enter in, douse the station with
gasoline and set it on fire and later disappeared. Despite
everything, the station still trying to survived in the face of
political threats and financial woes.
Another example
of attacks on the press were the Arson attack and closure of the
Independent Newspaper in 2005 and the indefinite closure of
another Independent radio station called SUD FM in Banjul in
2006 in the wake of the border stand-off between Senegal and The
Gambia, the killing of Deyda Hydara, the Proprietor and Editor
in Chief of the Point Newspaper in December 2005 and no one has
yet been held responsible, the arson attack and threat on the
life of Ebrima Sillah – the BBC Correspondent in The Gambia. It
could be recalled that the relationship between the Mass Media
and the Government of the present Republic became very much
tensed in 2006 when a host of journalists in The Gambia were
arbitrary arrested and detained by state agents, National
Intelligent Agency (NIA) in connection with the Freedom Now
website. The most recent were the Chief Manneh of the Daily
Observer, Dudou Sanneh of GRTS and the latter was Fatou Jaw
Manneh who was arrested on arrival at the Banjul International
Airport for an article she wrote while in the USA. It was on
this background that one could out-rightly commend the mass
media in The Gambia that it has been performing it duty in
raising awareness to its people in terms of dissemination of
information.
On 15th
December 1978, veteran journalists in The Gambia held an
extraordinary meeting came up with a decision for the formation
of a Union for Gambian journalists. The Union was founded and
called Gambia Press Union (GPU). The Union is to safeguard the
rights of journalists in The Gambia. The Union also seeks to
bridge the gap between the Government and the members
(Journalists and Mass Media Organisations).
The Union also seeks to
improve the skills of practicing journalists and to safeguard
the rights of all members of the GPU and also for media house to
adopt a code of ethic that will guide journalists with a sense
of responsibility, objectivity and fairness in order to
accomplish Press Freedom in the country. The achievement of the
Gambia Press Union over the years is that the Union has since
been struggling to push Press Freedom forward and ensured Good
Governance, as it plays an effective role in the new democracy.
In performing
it role well in The Gambia, the Mass Media has been faced with
several constrains ever since the formation of GPU with several
battles with legal difficulties with government, which is also a
recipe for the strain in relationship with the Mass Media and
the government, especially whenever journalists create awareness
in the socio-economic development which cannot go down well by
ruling government and the aftermath faced by Gambian journalists
based on legal difficulties.
It could be
recalled that in 1998, the present ruling government under the
leadership of President Yahya Jammeh, pass into law the Media
Commission and later amended and this act was later repealed
when GPU challenged the constitutionality in Court in 2002. This
Act was later replaced by another draconian bill – the Newspaper
Amendment Act and the 2004 Media Criminal Code, which
recommended fines and firm prison sentences for journalists who
do not comply with the regulations. As a matter of fact, the new
bill restricts Freedom of the Press and poses a serious threat
to the work of the journalists.
The Authorities
deemed right that this new bill is aimed at guaranteeing the
independent of the Press and greater professionalism in the
media but this did not meet with the approval of GPU. The Union
stood firm against such a bill that is intended to muzzle the
press by the government. GUP said in a statement that the bill
is Anti-constitutional because it is contrary to the provisions
guaranteeing Freedom of Expression and Information in The
Gambia. Concerns raised by the Union was, what will be the fate
of young journalists in the Gambia? What will be the status of
journalists with a law like this, in a country where any writing
on a government, subjected to systematic repression?
GPU backed by
Human Rights and International Press Freedom Organisations;
Gambian journalists have no intention of giving up, as they
stood firm until this bill is squashed. The Union met and
journalists initiated a series of measures, which are aimed at
convinced President Yahya Jammeh to amend the bill before its
ratification.
The struggle for
Press Freedom in The Gambia is still a hard task. The government
is also aware of the impact of a free press at a time when it is
increasingly faced with its own unpopularity nationally and
internationally. According to the government, journalists in The
Gambia are very much prone to sensationalism and deliberate
disparagement.
As for members
of GPU, the relationship between the Mass Media and the Gambia
government is very poor because it is based on misconceptions
through the practicalities on the ground. It can only be
resolved if both parties can continuously dialogue on their
roles. GPU as the main body, which governs journalists, should
also designed project proposal for in house training of
journalists in order to improve the standards of journalists in
the noble profession. GPU should also make sure that journalists
stand by the ground rules of professional journalism, which are
the Code of Ethics of the noble profession.
However the
most popular Mass Media among the students of this course are
the Newspaper and Internet (Online journalism) and the most
popular programs are Human Rights reporting and Press Freedom