When Jammeh took the mantle of leadership by power of the weapon, citizens and non-citizens residing both in the country and across borders were euphoric, and had cheered him from day one with the utopia that he would be an angel of mercy that has come to save the souls of our people, especially as it relates to his policies toward poverty eradication, vis-a-vis keeping the wolf from the door.
When the phantasm turns out to be damp squib, people began to cry over spilt milk.
Two years after Sir Dawda was removed from office by the ‘22nd July Revolutionaries,’ – Jammeh and his cohorts – elections were held that stationed the armed forces in office, after Jammeh’s AFPRC was declared winner of the race.
From the streets of Doha, Qatar to Bogota, Colombia, scholars questioned the aptitude of Jammeh’s regime; many came out with the thesis that military intervention in African politics is a stroke in the neck for the people of the continent, who for ages have seen the birth of what many called ‘Intellectual slavery’: people have suffered in silence; the blood of fear runs through their stratum; they have been made to take pride in pain; they have been browbeaten, and have had ants in their pants.
People have been paranoid, because the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has taken precedence in every crook of the country: the taxi men have been employed to supplement the work of the intelligence service unit; your neighbour has been consulted surreptitiously by the NIA to keep and eagle eye on you day-in-day-out; your closest friend could at anytime pour hot on you.
These are all factors that are causative to ‘fear’ in the country; and that is why political socialisation has been handicapped by the horror of reprisal. In public places when you talk about politics, people have a propensity to look around the surrounding to see if there is any unfamiliar face within the vicinity.
In many occasion, though light-heartedly, people paradoxically framed the central prison of Mile 2 – one of the most dangerous prisons in the country – as being ‘A hotel’, because Jammeh himself has repeatedly raised fingers that anyone who breaks the law will go to the pseudo ‘hotel’. The irony behind this ‘hotel’ is the fact that it is cheap to get oneself there, and that it has turned out to be an anticipated routine for activists.
In the Gambia, peaceful protest is intolerable by the government and is always seen as a radical departure from government’s conventional policies.
John has been arrested recently on several occasions.The pictograms of trepidation could be sensed throughout the length and breadth of the country: the turnout for the November 24 election in which Jammeh emerged the winner was dismal in most communities (many I spoke with underscored the fear of sporadic fighting as being what kept voters at bay); a voter was seen quivering on his feet at Latrikunda where myself I voted from; and a voter enters the ballot and apprehensively didn’t put the marble through the ballot, instead placed it on the table – she was immediately called back to put the marble in the ballot box. This is rather an untoward depiction caused by fear.
IS THIS COUNTRY A HELL FOR JOURNALISTS?
Speaking to journalists few hours after casting his vote, president Jammeh made it clear to the news-starved-media that he will not ‘tolerate [the journalists] a less than one percent’ of the population to vandalise the ‘peace and tranquillity that exist’ in the country. This ‘less than one percent’ is a euphemism directed to journalists in the country; a threat often aimed at scaring us out of our IQ. In a similar target, president Jammeh allegorically referred to the media in the country when he called journalists ‘rats’, during an interview with his television, GRTS two years ago. This comment reignited the kernel of hostilities that exists between journalists and the seventeen-year-old regime, and further witnessed in-house media admonitions. For many years, Jammeh’s government has seen the media as an adversary to progress.
Is Gambia a hell for journalists? Conceivably, few tweets could provide a retort:
The media has been confronted with with obnoxious legislations such as the villainous National Media Commission Act, which is purposely designated by Jammeh’s regime to severe the wing of the Gambian media. There were also amendments made to the Criminalisation Code, which criminalises offenses in relations to freedom of expression.
The International Federation of Journalists in its publication on the media under attack in The Gambia since 1994, helped to provide some glimpses that may lead us to shaping an answer.
June 15, 2009:
Seven journalists were arrested and questioned by the NIA in relation to a statement the GPU [Gambia Press Union] issued, criticising President Jammeh utterances on murdered journalist, Deyda Hydara [who was killed in cool blooded shooting]. The seven, including the vice-president of the GPU, Sarata Jabbi Dibba were charged with seditious publication and defamation. Those arrested include; Bai Emil Touray and Pa Modou Faal, both executive members of the GPU; Ebrima Sawaneh and Pap Saine of The Point Newspaper and Sam Sarr and Abubacar Saidy Khan of the Foroyaa Newspaper [both private newspapers].
June 2009:
The Editor-in-Chief of TODAY Newspaper, Abdullhamid Adiamoh, and sub-editor Edward Carayol were arrested after an article in the paper’s Wednesday’s edition reported “that the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice Marie Saine-Firdaus and other senior government officials had been fired”. Mr Carayol was released on bail; while Mr Adiamoh remained under detention for three days. He was then charged for publishing false and broadcasting information [even though he recalled back circulations and wrote an apology letters to the said ministers and Jammeh] and subsequently sentence to a fine of US$ 2, 174 in default to serve one year in jail.
February 2009:
Mr Pap Saine, editor [and publisher] of the Point newspaper was rearrested on Monday, interrogated by the Serious Crime Unit of the Gambia Police Force about his nationality.
February 9, 2009:
Officials of the Gambia police force arrested Pap Saine, subjected him to several hours of interrogation and charged him with another offence of ‘false publication and broadcasting’ at the serious crime unit.
July 2008:
Abdullhamid Adiamoh, Editor-in-Chief [and publisher] of TODAY newspaper was arrested; charged and sentence to a fine of US$ 865 in default to serve six months in jail for his failure to pay income tax and sales tax.
March 2008:
Buya Jammeh a reporter working with the Daily Observer [pro-government newspaper] was sacked by the management of the Daily Observer few days after being elected as a co-opted member of the Gambia Press Union. Buya was cautioned by the managing director and Editor-in-Chief, Dida Halake to resign from his position from the GPU or quit Observer. Buya however decided to quit the Observer instead.
September 2007:
Assistant State House Press Secretary, Mam Sait Ceesay and state radio producer and presenter Malick Jones were arrested by the NIA and held at Mile 2 prison, and accused of spreading ‘false information’. They were eventually dismissed from their respective jobs, but Malick Jones was eventually reinstated at the radio.
March 28, 2007:
Fatou Jaw Manneh, a former reporter of the Daily Observer [now] residing in the US was arrested by the NIA upon arrival at the Banjul International Airport. She had come from the US to visit her family and to pay tribute to her father who had earlier passed away. She was charged with sedition, which followed her conviction and sentenced to a fine of US$ 10, 869 or to serve two-year jail term.
Fatou Jaw MannehDecember 12, 2006:
Baron Eloign of the Daily Express, a privately owned newspaper was attacked and beaten. This followed the severe beating up of Abdougafar Olademinji, also of the same newspaper.
September 2006:
Dodou Sanneh, a reporter with the state-owned radio who was covering the [presidential] campaign of the UDP led coalition [the leading opposition party in the country] was recalled from his assignment and arrested when he reported for work, for what was termed as “favourable reporting for the opposition”. He was released on Monday 27 September, 2006 and sacked on the same day without reasons being given.
2006:
Njameh Bah, a [female] reporter with The Point newspaper was attacked in Bakoteh, about 18 km from the capital, Banjul and severely beaten by her attackers.
July 2006:
Ebrima B Manneh [Chief Manneh], a reporter with the Daily Observer was declared missing by his family. Manneh was last seen on July 7 by his colleagues. He is also believed to be in the hands of the NIA. Sulayman Makalo, another reporter with the [former] Independent newspaper is also declared missing.
May 2006:
A number of journalists and civilians were arrested and detained after being accused by the authorities of being the ‘informants’ of an online Gambian newspaper based in the US. This was highly refuted by [the] editor of the paper, who indicated that those, whose names were published by the Daily Observer in Banjul and arrested by the NIA, were just mere subscribers to the paper.
However, journalist Malick Mboob, a former reporter of the Daily Observer and Communication officer of the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital is still languishing in detention at the NIA headquarters. Musa Sheriff, a Liberian journalist [now the publisher of the ‘Voice Newspaper’] was also arrested in relation to the publication of the subscribers’ names on the pro-government newspaper [Observer] was severely tortured by the officials of the NIA whilst in detention. Omar Bah, former editor of the Daily Observer has been declared wanted by the [former] Inspector General of Police [now languishing in jail himself]. [Omar’s] whereabouts are not known.
Alieu Ceesay explained to journalist Angela Brooks about the situation journalists are facing in Gambia.April 10, 2006:
Lamin Fatty, a reporter with the Independent newspaper was arrested and detained at the headquarters of the NIA. Fatty spent almost two months in detention before he was finally charged for “false information”.
March 27/28, 2006:
Another crackdown on the Independent newspaper [took place]. Editor-in-Chief, Musa Saidykhan was arrested on March 27 by the security forces. The editor’s arrest [was] followed by the arrest of the entire staff of the company, including its newly appointed manager Madi Ceesay. Security officers also sealed off the paper’s office complex. After weeks in solitary confinement punctuated with systematic and physical torture, the duo who double as president and vice president of the GPU were released on bail twenty two days later.
December 16, 2004:
The Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of the Point newspaper, Deyda Hydara was brutally killed by three bullets at the wheel of his car just few meters away from the police depot. Hydara’s killing coincided with the 13th anniversary of the founding of The Point. The two other staff of the point who were inside Hydara’s car at the time of the incident – Nyansarang Jobe and Ida Jagne – also sustained serious injuries. Nyansarang was shot on the leg while Ida sustained severe bruises.
August 2004:
The house of the BBC Banjul correspondent, Ebrima Sillah, in Jambur – about 24 km from the capital Banjul – was attacked by arsonists. They forced open a sitting room window, poured some diesel fuel on the floor, and set it on fire. Sillah had to escape through a window, but everything in the house was burnt to ashes, including a laptop that was given to him by the BBC.
April 2004:
Six armed masked men put the printers of The Independent newspaper at gunpoint, poured diesel on the paper’s new printing machine and set it on fire. During the 3:00 am melee, some staff sustained severe injuries. The arsonists left behind a pistol, which was given to the police [for investigation purposes]. Two of the arsonists – corporal Sana Manjang and Sheriff Guissey (both soldiers of the National Guard) -- were named in parliament. The government still kept mute over the issue, as the suspects were neither arrested nor prosecuted.
Common Wealth SG visited Gambia to discuss among other things the freedom of expressionOctober 2003:
A group in a green pickup vehicle (that are normally used by government agents) without number plates paid an unauthorised visit to the office of the Independent Newspaper at midnight and attacked the watchman with an iron bar, sprayed him with tear gas, poured some diesel fuel on the electric metre and set it on fire.
Courtesy of the International Federation of Journalists, these instances could help gauge one’s response to the question I planted across, even though the list goes on to feed the reader.
In an attempt to pull the punches of journalists, Jammeh accepted to hold talk with journalists in a meeting held at the palace. When the principled-guided journalists insisted that they would roll with the punches, the forty-seven-year-old Jammeh in his retort saw no sign of giving up the crusade against them. What was expected to be a fruitful meeting aimed at resolving disparities between the cat and the mice turned out to be a quirk of fate.
Mr President we are not all that you are making of us. We are mere agents of change. Change from the present status quo: the threat to political socialisation; fragiled socio-economic development, and the silenced of the Press and the lack of freedom of expression. You have been pulling your socks up towards lifting the economic status of the average Gambia, but remember ‘Development without democracy is not sustainable, and democracy without development is meaningless;’ thus the two are fundamentally interrelated in nature.
The wind of change is blowing across the world; therefore, we want to see this change pull off by your seventeen-year-old government, before nature turns the wind towards the smiling coast of West Africa.
Pls note: this article does not include about numerous arrests made in the last 24 months.
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