Freedom or development?

Someone once said to me, purely as a word of admonition rather than confiding in me, that if one wanted to make an acclaimed journalist in The Gambia they were better off not identifying with any side of the political divide, and that they must endeavour to refrain from taking part in discussions of issues of popular public interest. Although I couldn’t figure out which category of conventional journalism that would fall under, between me and God, I knew that they were putting forward a solid point, taking into consideration the prevailing situation in the country - a fearfully charged political atmosphere with a consequential air of silence often erroneously interpreted as suggesting content. This prevailing air of silence is rather like a latent pandemic with potentially catastrophic consequences for the entire nation.

Last Tuesday’s BBC Africa Have Your Say programme, The Gambia: Paradise lost?, discussing the country’s rather wobbly human right situation, clearly accentuated this point. Although we heard a handful of views in favour of the status quo, the dissenting views exceedingly outnumbered the former. And the complete absence of the voice of the Gambian authorities further adds on the emphasis of fear censorship on information sharing has inflicted on our rather paranoid society. But the fact that the BBC could not convince any Gambian government official after placing about 15 telephone calls, as it said, never came to me as a surprise though. That is a familiar terrain for me as a journalist in Gambia. But again, come to think about it - what would any sorry soul have to say in defence of an indefensible state of affairs in the country?

The disturbing realisation about all this is that Gambians appear to have resigned to this ill-fated situation. It must be borne at the back of our minds, however, that we can never achieve the development we desire in the absence of a free press and freedom of expression. Apart from the fact that we need alternative views as to what development areas need prioritisation over others, there are so many questionable dealings surrounding public institutions and officials which need discussing if we can surmount the obstacle they pose to our collective progress. And, most importantly, when you suppress a people’s right to expressing themselves freely, you augment tension in society, and such a society remains constantly on the brink of instability. Anytime this awful state of indignation in the masses exceeds its elastic limit, the consequences are bound to be unyielding. This is a point no sober minded Gambian will attempt to dispute – in government or outside government.

The existence of silence might induce an illusory thought of content when in actually fact there is a state of overwhelming discontent. That is the situation in The Gambia presently.

In my rather short stint as a journalist in The Gambia, I have received numerous warnings from oodles of people, especially from within my family circles, majority of whom would rather I did something else for a living. Their worry is that I could get arrested and arraigned on false information or related charges, or even go through the path of the disappeared journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh.

But I wasn’t doing journalism for a living, because doing journalism for a living in Gambia means an altogether shoddy business; it means not only selling one’s integrity but also, most importantly, trading the actual purpose of the profession for the promotion of individual and illicit corporate interests. It is quite a viably tempting alternative to pursuing the rightful line of the profession.

But like many of us would say about our professions, I took to reporting out of the love for it; in response to a smothering urge to discuss the teeming societal issues that abound in The Gambia. I see the profession as a way of correcting wrongs in society. Not to make money.

But oh dear! Ours happens to be a different country. The culture of silence is disgracefully entrenched at every level.

Contrary to general feeling among the so-called independent press in the country, accessibility to information has been a prickly task for all regardless of who you work for – government or the private media. I worked for the Daily Observer, a pro-APRC government newspaper. But my experience has been by and large discouraging. While many people turn down request for comment on relevant issues on genuine grounds, must are part and parcel of the totalitarian trend in the country. Sometimes you get the feeling that it is a crime to share information. They refuse to talk to you either because they have done something wrong and they fear you might discover it and inform the world, or they might not be qualified for the position they hold, as is the case for a considerable number of people, especially at senior government level, and they fear that you might expose their unbecoming incompetence and cost them their undeserving integrity.

To give an idea about how fearful some public officials are to give out information, I will narrate my experience with a particular public offical. As editor-in-chief of the Daily Observer newspaper, I got a mail from a reader of our online edition of the news through the official inbox. The person simply wanted us to help get an email address across to him from a particular ministry. There was this article we had on our website which this reader was interested to discuss with any authorised official at the ministry.

After marathon telephone calls (as a matter of fact I had to use a junior staff who used his family relation to get hold of a number for a particular senior official), I got in touch with the permanent secretary of this department. The discussion went on smoothly until at the point where I mentioned my profession as a journalist.

His response was: ‘‘how did you get my number?

I couldn’t disclose that because the Good Samaritan who gave us the number had warned against disclosing his identity. Imagine public officials keeping their contact details from the people they are supposed to serve! That is a familiar practice in Gambia.

Anyway, on narration of my mission, this particular PS, as we call them, suggested that I wrote a letter, formally requesting that he shares his email with me. I seriously had to restrain the surge of anger I felt in me. The thought that came to mind immediately was to bang the telephone on his ears. But I was quick to realise that going off without letting him know how I felt wasn’t the best way to deal with the situation.

‘‘Me write to you on this?’’ I asked, trying as hard as I could to sound as disappointing as possible.

‘‘Yes’’, he insisted, ‘‘because you journalists these days write whatever you feel like.’’

As my last words, I said, ‘‘For God’s sake, I am just the editor of the Daily Observer, a Gambian newspaper in the service of national interest. We published a story that concerns your department, and a particular reader of our online edition, probably a potential investor, wants to get in touch with you, and here you are asking me to write to you…?’’

Before I could complete that statement he suddenly made a U-turn and read out his personal mail to me. The anger and frustration led to my misplacement of those details and I couldn’t get back to him.

I have had even more nasty experiences than this as a journalist in Gambia. The moment you disclose your identity as a journalist, loads of excuses are thrown on you. What many of us lack in Gambia is initiative…many have become used to being told what to do.

The right to information is a fundamental human right and it is crucial to our development. One thing is quite clear, and that is that if you do not offer information voluntarily, it will be usurped, because natural law demands that information must flow.

As to whether I would give up my right for the so-called development, well, development itself is broader than just building airport, roads, schools or providing people with electricity. Awareness is an essential aspect of the development of the human being. Now, tell me, how on earth can one get aware when they are starved of information? What is the essence of teaching me about freedom of speech when you will not allow me to practice it?

Let me conclude this piece with a question: is it possible to do journalism without having to touch on issues that affect government or the public? Well, I will let you decide for yourself.

Good Over Evil!

I remember vividly been told once that a lot of times evil wins but for a short time. A rather astringent but frank statement coming from someone of quite a respectable disposition. It is indeed quite a reassuring acknowledgment, and, I must admit, it means pretty much a lot to me in my present fractured state of mind.
The patient dog, they say, gets the fattest bone. This is however not as simple as just clinching some fat bone here or settling some scores with some foes; it is about the smoldering desire to see truth prevails over falsehood in Gambia.
Life as a whole is characterised by ups and downs, full of trials and tribulations. And as human beings, we are made up of people from all extremes … some are evil, yet there are good ones among us. Many are selfish, but still there are selfless ones among us. There are also charlatans among us who would live their entire despondent lives under the illusory notion that no one is sentient to their loathsome deeds. But the truth is like perfume. It can’t be suppressed. Sooner or later it will surface.
The fact remains that wherever evil prevails, there exist a high degree of chance of distortion of truth. I sense this happening presently at the Daily Observer, just like it has always been the case. Nevertheless, I pride myself for being reasonably sincere in all my duties throughout my life so far, both as a student leader at the University of The Gambia and as a journalist at The Gambia’s biggest and most prominent news paper, the Daily Observer.
However, the thought of having shared time with some of the most unrepentantly devious people in The Gambia leaves me devastatingly distraught, but the thought of having got the chance to work, at the same time, with some of the finest people the country has on offer sharply contrasts with this, serving as a conciliatory feeling for what I largely consider today as a waste of time for the close to two years of service with the Observer Company, where life represents a classic example of life in the rest of the country since the emergence of the July 22nd Revolution. Deception, treachery, envy, betrayal…and all sorts of vices, are the order of the day. The only guarantee of staying long at the Observer is to ensure that one religiously upholds these irreligious attributes. I would never accept such a demeaning temperament … over my dead body.
Consequently, the Daily Observer is one of the must dangerous places to work with in the world. The seemingly inexplicable disappearance of Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh is a stark manifestation of the precarious nature of life for reporters at the Observer. Like Chief, many of us worked with the Observer with quite genuine intentions, but we ended up realizing that we were working with some of the world’s most perfidious characters. But unlike Chief Manneh, some of us were lucky enough to sense the danger before we were nailed down.
Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts about what is actually responsible for the anomalies that presently abound in The Gambia. Could it be because of the small size of the country that so many people have become praise singing hypocrites, disregarding totally the decadent situation of the country?
Yes, there are so many hypocrites in The Gambia today because so many bad things are happening yet no one dares raise them as concerns. Where are the religious leaders, our supposed respectable elders in society, the opinion leaders, the intellectuals, etc.? Of course, I will have to be mindful against being excessively judgmental or selfishly vindictive, because I am well aware of the implications of not being economical with the truth these days in The Gambia. I quite know that I would not dare discuss the issues I will be raising on this blog if I were still in The Gambia.
While I regret the manner in which I left the country, giving up the modest life I was living, as an independent person, I am grateful to Allah that I found a lost value, and that is an unlimited entitlement to freedom of expression, even though it has to be far, far away from the home I missed so dearly within this short space of time in exile. Be rest assured that I will certainly make the best use of my stay in exile, safely out of reach of predators of the press.
I am also well aware of the fact that in The Gambia when one criticizes the wrong happenings in the country, they are portrayed as being at war with the entire country or its head of state. This has been largely a way of running away from responsibility on the part of the people who commit all these despicable crimes that have transformed this lovely place into some sort of a hellhole... people like Momodou Sanyang and Pa Malick Faye. But my source of courage shall remain my conscience which I shall be guided by at all times in pursuing this course. I love The Gambia just as much as any other genuine born citizen of the country.

Towards a Just society

Since July 1994, at the dawn of what was popularly held as a people’s revolution, The Gambia has become synonymous to suppression of freedom of expression, and this situation seems to be deteriorating by the second. The worst reality is that there doesn’t seem to be any tangible interest in effort to counter this growing trend of repression perpetuated by a bunch of enemies of progress.
When repressive actions are taken against members of the press, nothing seems to be done other than the usual empty treats that the perpetuators have become so accustomed to that they appear more like songs to them. The reason for this is mainly that the actual culprits are ignored, and the result - a multitude of journalists continue to languish in detention centres across the world, most of these in tortuous places on the African continent.
Chief Ebrima Manneh, rightly described as a prisoner of conscience by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is a Gambian journalist in the hands of one of the world’s most inexperienced but notoriously dangerous intelligent agencies, the murderous National Intelligence Agency (NIA) of The Gambia. The reason for his detention is one of the most frivolous you can ever find.
Chief Manneh worked for the Daily Observer newspaper, the same pro-government newspaper I served as Editor-in-chief until August 11, when I fled the country, running away from two of the very same people who put the poor journalist’s life in jeopardy - Momodou Sanyang, Director General of The Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), and Pa Malick Faye, Managing Director of the Observer Company. These two people, together with some quack of a rather misguided academic, Dr Aliue Badara Saja Taal, former Managing Director of the Observer Company, are chiefly responsible for the disappearance of Chief Manneh. This is no speculation. It is the result of a finding I sanctioned and embarked upon, myself, during my stint at the Observer. I became especially interested in the case because I came close to being a victim of the same situation Manneh is in. I will explain that later.
For now though, we must focus on how to fee Chief. If the world is genuine in its effort to delivering justice for Chief Manneh and his family, and to ensure that this trend of lawlessness is stemmed, I bet these three people must be called to answer for their part in the crime. They are no better than suspected common criminals being tried across the world for various crimes against humanity.
While this site is not going to be limited to campaigning for the unconditional release of Chief Manneh or to bring the perpetuators of this heinous crime against him and his troubled family to justice, it seeks to pioneer a new course to tackling issues of this nature on the African continent and beyond as well to discuss many of the issues that contribute to the continued underdevelopment of the world in general and The Gambia in particular, towards a just society.
In our crusade to tackle unlawful actions against the press, we must endeavour, in our own way, to lobby for international action to:
1. Identify the culprit (s) and single them out;
2. Freeze their assets abroad, if they have any; and
3. Restrict their movement by slamming travel ban on them; while at the same time pushing on to seek justice for their crime.

This task calls for a concerted effort. Justice For The Press or simply J4P will need as much support as possible from all supporters of a free press across the world.