In his own words, Tombong Saidy has clearly illustrated the deep seated
problems festering at GRTS. First he tries to rationalize the patently
unprofessional bent of his organization by falsely claiming that they were
operating in the same manner as PBS or BBC. Seeing through the apparent
shallowness of his outlandish claims at comparison he tries to console us
with an iron clad guarantee that things would be markedly different in the
upcoming elections citing the meeting GRTS had with the IEC regarding the
modalities of  equal and fair coverage for all parties involved. It has been
two weeks since the IEC meeting and GRTS was specifically asked to produce a
document stipulating internal guidelines that would ensure that coverage
would be equal and fair and it is important for list members to note that the
by elections are in march with only a three week window to actually campaign.
Campaign messages have to formulated and produced by the various parties
using GRTS facilities coupled with requests for event coverage. Since the IEC
is either unwilling or unable to mandate their request for equal treatment
and access to the public media, much is left to the very often skewed
discretion of Tombong and his team at GRTS and he is doing his best to run
the clock on coming out with a credible set of guidelines on coverage. For
example it is entirely up to GRTS to determine if an event qualifies as a
news item or a campaign event in the run up to the contest thus creating a
significant loop hole that would in effect have the potential to compromise
what ever theoretical guidelines GRTS may conjure up in the very last minute.
If Mr Saidy is really interested in playing the unbiased referee, all he has
to do is allocate a full time reporter to each of the candidates  for the
duration of the campaign and give them equitable airing.Also get the
candidates in studio and conduct a moderated debate amongst them both on TV
and Radio.
      The suggestion that opposition parties or the politicians have even a
limited opportunity to  be heard by the Gambian people on GRTS is both
fanciful and a carnard.The UDP which I am affiliated with has submitted
numerous requests for coverage and the results have been consistent in that
GRTS never cover their events or provide them an opportunity to communicate
directly with the people. Once in a very rare while they would choose to air
a heavily edited footage of an event giving it the shortest shrift they can
muster in a bid to minimize the impact to the audience.They are especially
averse to covering the rallies because they don't want to show large numbers
of people expressing support for the opposition.They don't cover UDP news
conferences or carry party statements on important public policy matters.I
don't want to get into a hair splitting argument on the extent to which the
President needs to be covered. GRTS can cover him brushing his teeth or doing
other mundane stuff. All we want is to hear the other folks too in a regular
and fair manner discuss public policy. The suggestion that the need to
extensively cover the presidency precludes airing other people's viewpoints
is absurd.The country must be afforded an opportunity to have the broad
spectrum that constitutes it accurately reflected in it's discourse. GRTS has
evolved to become the public relations arm of a creul regime by attempting to
feed the Gambian people with a steady diet of lies, misrepresentation and
silly propaganda.
    Apart from stifling diversity on the airwaves, GRTS does very little of
their supposed mandate of increasing the awareness of the people with
programs to educate them.The People cannot rely on GRTS to accurately portray
events as they unfold in their surroundings. Why don't you do a story on how
a farmer totally dependent on a once in a year income is faring with a
government I.O.U in lieu of months of back breaking work in unbearable heat
and mosquitoes? It is your job to project their fate to those who keep
peddling one broken promise after another while hundreds of thousands of
these suffering people wither in the vines.The same goes for the economy,
healthcare, education, contemporary Gambian history, municipal corruption and
a host of other things important to our people. I don't expect you to devote
your time and resources to do what is right because they simply don't reflect
your priorities. You feel no compunction to do what you can to prop up a
regime the like s which we would all work hard to spare our nation of in the
foreseeable future. We can nonetheless take solace in the fact that the
nation would only have to put up with you and your benefactors until November
and in the Grace of God GRTS can be run by people with institutional loyalty
guarded only by the ethics of their profession and statutorily protected from
government supervision or interference. Some of the employees who are now
cringing under your heavy handed and unprofessional approach would break free
and run their outfit as it ought to be.
Karamba

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