HI Ebrima CEESAY,
Please kindly confirm if you are ebrima ceesay that was at the Daily Observer
Newspaper,commonly known as COACH.
My name is Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay was in Observer 1994 to 1996.
Looking forward to hear from you.
ebrima ceesay wrote:
> REVISITING JAMMEH'S NEVER-ENDING GAGGING OF THE PRIVATE PRESS
>
> When will Jammeh's harassment of the Gambian press end/stop?
>
> I am compelled to ask this question, because when I looked at the front page
> of the Monday issue of the Daily Observer, the lead story was yet again
> about another proposed law.
>
> This time it is the National Media Commission Draft Bill 1999, whose primary
> objective, in my view, is nothing other than another attempt yet again by
> Jammeh to further stifle the press in the Gambia.
>
> According to the Daily Observer, the draft bill, which is expected to be
> passed or rejected during the current legislative sessions, gives the
> proposed media Commission, which is to act as a regulatory body of the
> Gambian media, far-reaching powers, including the power to fine and imprison
> journalists who fail to comply with the provisions of the Bill.
>
> Interestingly, the members of the proposed Commission, whose
> head/chairperson will be appointed by Jammeh himself, are immune or exempt
> from civil proceedings, and, worst of all, "no appeal shall lie from a
> decision of the Commission."
>
> For more information on the content of this draconian Bill, read the Monday
> issue of the Daily Observer.
>
> Meanwhile, I must say that when I went through the whole content of the
> draft Bill, my mind went back to what the renowned British barrister,
> Geoffrey Robertson, had once said about obstacles to press freedom.
>
> The principal obstacles to press freedom lie, in the words of lawyer
> Geoffrey Robertson, "not in prejudiced proprietors, circulation crazed
> editors or incompetent journalists, but in a web of a vague legal doctrines
> which catch facts and opinions essential for informed scrutiny of social
> power."
>
> Interestingly, when Mr Jammeh was recently in the USA, he had claimed that
> he was committed to press freedom and yet his government is retaining
> laws/Decrees or trying to pass laws which make it impossible for the press
> to be what it should be.
>
> How can Jammeh's recent statement and the actions of his government be
> reconciled: One one hand, Jammeh says he is committed to press freedom and
> on the other hand, his government is trying to set up a National Media
> Commission, whose members would be given sweeping powers, powers that would
> further restrict or curtail press freedom in the Gambia.
>
> It is the proverbial case, if you know what I mean or you have the
> experience of living next door to a colony of mice, of the mouse causing the
> wound and gently licking it in order to continue the business of inflicting
> greater injury.
>
> Interestingly, shortly after seizing power in July 1994, Jammeh called on
> the members of the press to "freely criticise" them anytime we wanted to.
>
> He and the late spokesman of the then ruling military council, Captain
> Sadibou Hydara, had told Gambians, on many occasions, that a new era of
> progress, democracy, freedom, accountability, transparency and probity had
> dawn/begun in the Gambia, now that they were at the helm.
>
> I am sure the late Captain Hydara must be turning in his grave if he truly
> believed in his own words. Because since 1994, journalists working for the
> private media in the Gambia have been regularly arrested, reportedly
> tortured in some cases, and hauled into court on very flimsy charges in
> other cases.
>
> Jammeh still continues to show extreme hostility toward the independent
> media and, in fact, believe me, if he had his way, he would have banned the
> private media outright.
>
> But because he fears international pressures/condemnations, he is forced to
> use a number of strategies to harass and intimidate journalists in order to
> frighten them.
>
> To buttress my point, I'll cite examples of the numerous harassments the
> private press has encountered since Jammeh came to power, so that you can
> better understand/appreciate the gravity of the situation, or at least be
> familiar with the difficult conditions under which the independent media in
> the Gambia operates.
>
> Here it goes:
>
> In fact, on the very first day of the coup, a Daily Observer reporter, Alieu
> Badara Njie, was detained for several hours, while on assignment at the
> Bakau military barracks. Mr Njie had gone to the barracks to find out what
> was happening there, as we were hearing gun shots from our Observer offices,
> which are just a stone's throw from the Bakau barracks.
>
> When Mr Njie reported to our offices the next day, he told us that he was
> detained for several hours at the Bakau barracks, during the first day of
> the coup, and was only released because Captains Sam Sarr and Mamat Cham had
> recognised him.
>
> Then came August 1994: Two editors of Foroyaa, Sidia Jatta and Halifa
> Sallah were arrested and charged under Decree No 4 with publishing Foroyaa
> illegally, on the grounds that their paper was an organ of a banned party.
>
> Sidia and Halifa were discharged by the Magistrate, but were required to pay
> D1,000 dalasis cost if my memory serves me right.
>
> In september 1994, a senior reporter of the Daily Observer, Justice Fofanah,
> now living in exile in the US, was arrested at the Kairaba Beach Hotel,
> while on assignment there, and detained at the Banjul police station for
> several hours, before being released and told never to go the Observer
> offices again.
>
> The police wanted him to disclose the source of a story he wrote about Ebou
> Ndure, former chief of Protocol, but Mr Fofanah had refused to name his
> source.
>
> The saddest day for the Daily Observer came on 30 October 1994, when the
> Immigration authorities arrested Kenneth Best, then proprietor and editor in
> chief of the Daily Observer, in the morning, and deported him to his
> war-torn country of Liberia in the afternoon.
>
> In fact, prior to his deportation, Mr Best was picked up by the security
> forces on October 21, 1994, and he spent 21 hours in detention in Kartong
> before being released.
>
> Best was told by the security forces shortly before his release and I quote:
> "Mr Best, from now on, you have to be careful with what you put in your
> newspaper"...
>
> Anyway, a few days after Best was deported, Abdoulie Savage, a Daily
> Observer reporter now living in exile in the US, was severely tortured by
> the military at the Bakau barracks, after I, myself, had assigned him to the
> barrack, in order to find out what was happening to the ex-ministers who
> were being rounded up on that day and were believed to be detained at the
> Bakau barracks.
>
> In fact, Savage was hospitalised for days before recovering from serious
> facial wounds.
>
> During the same period, a journalist of The Point newspaper, Ebrima
> Sankareh, now living in the US, was also arrested and detained for several
> hours. I forgot exactly what Sankareh's alleged crimes were, but he was not
> charged in the end.
>
> Then came my turn: In December 1994 the late Captain Hydara had used radio
> Gambia, a rally in Bansang and a symposium at the Gambia college to call me
> "a liar, a detractor, a misinformer, a Western puppet", among other things.
>
> In March 1995, the government intensified its harassment of the press, after
> The Point newspaper had carried a story about a prison riot at the Mile 2
> prisons.
>
> Three journalists of The Point, Pap Saine, Alieu Badara Sowe and Brima
> Ernest, were taken into custody and later charged with the "publication of
> false news with the intent to cause fear and alarm to the public".
>
> After a six-month trial, the three journalists were acquited by the court.
> Surprisingly, the next day, Pap Saine's passport was seized by agents of the
> National Intelligence Agency (NIA) at the airport, as he was about to travel
> to Dakar to attend a meeting there.
>
> Saine was threatened with deportation to Senegal, because the Immigration
> officials in the Gambia had alleged that he was Senegalese.
>
> After he was released, a shaken Pap Saine told me that he was only released
> because I had sent an emotional/sensational report about the confiscation of
> his Gambian passport to the popular BBC Focus On Africa programme which gave
> Saine's arrest worldwide publicity.
>
> Pap Saine later showed me documents confirming that he was indeed born in
> the Gambia.
>
> As for Brima Ernest, a Sierra Leonean, the Press Union had to get him a US
> visa, because he was also threatened with deportation to Sierra Leone, where
> he was wanted by the then military government in that country.
>
> In October 1995, the Jammeh regime violated international law by deporting
> Cherno Ojuku Ceesay, also a Sierra Leonean, to Sierra Leone, even though the
> Jammeh government knew that Cherno was wanted by the Captain Strasser regime
> at the time.
>
> Luckily, Cherno was not executed as first feared upon arrival in Freedom. He
> was detained for weeks, but subsequently the Strasser regime had to release
> him after receiving immense international pressures.
>
> A few days after Cherno was deported, two female staff of the Daily
> Observer, the late Lorraine forster and Fatoumatta Jallow were arrested and
> detained for several hours, at the NIA headquarters in Banjul.
>
> The two were accused of distributing Captain Ebou Jallow's resignation
> letter. Fatoumatta was never charged but Lorraine was subsequently charged
> with distributing a "seditious publication" relating to Captain Ebou
> Jallow's defection.
>
> Cherno baba Jallow was also arrested by the NIA who had expressed
> reservations about his column in the Observer. Cherno, correct me if I am
> wrong, but didn't the NIA threaten your parents in Basse because of your
> commentaries?
>
> Then came March 1996, when a new campaign against the private media was
> started. Baboucarr Gaye, then proprietor of the now defunct New Citizen
> newspaper was, in fact, the main victim of this policy, because his paper
> was being printed at the Government Printing Department.
>
> During this period, March 1996, the AFPRC also issued Decrees 70 & 71 both
> of which have increased the bond required from any any independent newspaper
> publisher from D1000 dalasis to D100,000.
>
> In fact, I was among the editors of the four private papers who were taken
> to court for several weeks, in order to comply with the provisions of Decree
> 71. During our trial, there was a complete one week when all the independent
> newspapers in the Gambia did not come out.
>
> Before our trial, to be precise in February 1996, then student journalist
> Baboucarrr Sankanu was also detained for days after he sent a story to the
> BBC about a blaze at the Serekunda Market.
>
> After the presidential and parliamentary elections Jammeh again intensified
> his intimidation/muzzling of the private press. In 1997, the cost of
> licenses to operate a private radio station was increased from D12,000 to
> D25,000.
>
> In July 1997, Alagie Yorro Jallow, then a BBC stringer and Alieu Badara
> Sowe, were detained for five days after they wrote a story about a prison
> riot in the Gambia.
>
> In October 97, the government banned the popular press review programme on
> Citizen FM, because it felt the radio station was only reviewing stories
> critical of the regime.
>
> Prior to this, to be precise in May 1997, the Gambian authorities reportedly
> prohibited radio Gambia and Gambia TV from broadcasting programmes critical
> of female genital mutilation.
>
> In November 1997, Ellicot Seade, the Ghanaian editor in chief of the Daily
> Observer was deported to Ghana, for no just reason. A few months before
> Seade's deportation, three staff of the Daily Observer, including Court
> reporter Moco Macauley, now in exile in the US, were deported to Liberia.
>
> In June 1998, Sule Musa, a Nigeria journalist who was working for the
> Observer was surreptitiously deported to his native country of Nigeria.
>
> In February 1998, Citizen FM went off the air for days after its proprietor
> Baboucarr Gaye and news editor Ebrima Sillah were arrested and detained for
> days before being released. They were later accused, among other things, of
> broadcasting an unfounded shake-up story about the NIA.
>
> In August 1998, Theophilus George, Demba Jawo and Baba Galleh Jallow were
> detained for days after the Daily Observer had reported the collapse of the
> fence at State House.
>
> In September 1998, Citizen FM was closed down by the courts. Baboucarr Gaye
> was charged in March 1998, under a law dating back to 1913, called the
> Telegraph Act.
>
> The Act states: "if any person establishes a telegraph station without a
> license...he shall be liable to a fine of D1,000 dalasis or imprisonment,
> with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding 12 months"...
>
> In May 1999, Amadou Samba bought the Daily Observer and just a few days
> after the purchased the Observer, Samba sacked Demba Jawo and Theo George.
>
> Baba Galleh Jallow resigned and went to start a newspaper with Alagie Yorro
> Jallow. However, after publishing just five issues, the Jallows' newspaper,
> The Independent, was ordered to cease publication until they sorted out
> their registration.
>
> And before the paper resumed publication after being off the streets for
> days, Baba Galleh and Yorro Jalow were kept in custody at one point.
>
> And now the draconian Media Commission Bill is about to raise its ugly head.
> Am I not therefore obliged to ask this question: when will Jammeh stop
> harassing the private press in the Gambia?
>
> It is very clear that since Jammeh came to power, the independent media in
> the Gambia has been facing endless harassments and intimidation from him.
>
> Surely the effects of these harassments, coupled with more overt forms of
> repression will only increase self censorship within the ranks of the media.
>
> Rather than risk international condemnation with an outright ban on the
> private media, Jammeh's tactic is to frighten the journalists into self
> censorship. Because he knows that the media, hedged around by these
> repressive laws, will certainly practise extensive self-censorship in order
> to steer clear of legal implications.
>
> I must, however, say that despite the numerous harassments/obstacles, the
> independent media in the Gambia has continued to do an impressive job even
> though its critical comments, in some people's view, are sometimes subtle,
> instead of being more forthright.
>
> In conclusion, I have to say that Jammeh should be made to understand that
> one of the sacred duties of the media is actually to help the
> readers/listeners and the entire public for that matter, to take action when
> necessary in the public interest, and to avoid unnecessary mistakes,
> hardship, disasters or tragedies.
>
> Therefore, the media is duty-bound to be in the vanguard of justice, truth,
> fair play, making sure that whatever is in the public interest is exposed or
> reported.
>
> The press, in every democracy, serves as an Early Warning signal(EWS),
> warning of danger, be it military, political, economic, social or business.
> It is indeed the duty of the media to inform the people of what is happening
> and to provide a forum for public discussion of issues that concern and
> affect the public.
>
> For Heaven's sake let someone tell Mr Jammeh that the media in the Gambia
> has the duty, responsibility, obligation to enlighten the public so that
> they (the public) can make the right choices/decisions.
>
> Ebrima Ceesay,
> Birmingham, UK.
>
> PS: I received the Foroyaa's posting on the death of Nyerere in codes.
> Grateful, if someone could send me the same Foroyaa posting on Nyerere if
> there are no codes.
>
> I read George Ayittey's piece on Nyerere, and I must say I was very
> disappointed. I, myself, intend to take issue with professor Ayittey if time
> permits me.
>
> I don't know about you, but as for me, it doesn't bother anymore even if you
> are a Harvard University professor/rector. I have now mature if you know
> what I mean. These professors are just human beings like us. Consequently,
> they should be challenged or taken to task if they are distorting the facts.
>
> I am speaking from experience, because a leading Western expert/professor of
> African Affairs, who is highly respected intellectually, stole some ideas
> from my manuscript when I gave it to him to have a read.
>
> I used to elevate this professor, but I am now convinced that he just has
> brains like you and I. And as such, he is bound to get it wrong from time to
> time.
>
> Yes! Nyerere had his limitations, but the man deserved better than what
> Ayittey gave him.
>
> By the way, I am presently looking at Nyerere's political fall out with
> Abdou Rahman Babou and the lessons to be learnt. Babou was jailed when
> Nyerere occupied the presidency in Tanzania. That should make an interesting
> piece.
>
> Let me speak jargon here: I have now got some reliable information on Dr
> Sedat Jobe, Gambia's foreign minister, but the good editorial judgement in
> me is telling me not to send anything to the L as at now.
>
> ______________________________________________________
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