Good Day, Mr. Gassama

Your reply contains some inaccuracies.
You mentioned The Patriot, which is a political organ of the regime. As for
Jeggan, he was the editor of The Spectator that you said was owned by Joseph
Joof.
On Decree 70/71, what I said was limpid. In its haste to cripple the private
press, the government forgot to mention in Decree 70 that we were to
Re-register. Decree 70 only highlighted the increase of the amount for the
Bond thus: " Section 7 of the Principal Act is amended by deleting the words
"One hundred Dalasis by the words "One hundred thousand dalasis".
When they realised that the re-registration aspect of the Decree was missed
out, they came up with a Rectification Decree, Decree 71 with a Section 7 A:
" All bonds executed under Section 7 of the Principal Act in the sum of One
Thousand Dalasis are hereby cancelled and every newspaper previously printed
or published with such bond shall not be printed or published unless a bond
of One Hundred Thousand Dalasis is given and executed.
Now it took them days to figure out how to change the manner the bond used
to be executed. From colonial times to 1994, bonds were just a formality;
anybody brought by a publisher could sign the bond.
But for the regime, they asked us to provide landed properties whose value
must not be below D100, 000 Dalasis. One property was to guarantee the bond
and the second one was to guarantee the former.
All newspapers then hired valuators and came up with this unwarranted
requirement which was not in fact specified in the decrees.
You mentioned a D50, 000 bond; as I said the Decree's fines range from D10,
000 to 50,000.
Now I must say that I do not agree with you that newspapers should be closed
after paying fines.
I must pay homage here to the late AA Njie and Theophilus George who pledged
their properties for The Observer as Kenneth Best had no property in The
Gambia.
Foroyaa also re-registered under the new terms as a newspaper and no longer
a party organ. Therefore, The Patriot is the only party organ in the country
now.
Now you are equating 3 trials and 2 detentions for a period of 30 years
against 2 trials and 34 detentions for the last 7 years. I was the only One
arrested by the NSS not journalists on many occasions as we said.
I forgot the last time to respond to your question on publications, when I
went to Ghana in 1992, I saw a newspaper whose lead was "Rawlings Is Naught"
and another "Rawlings The …". In 1996, I saw about three newspapers
published on June 4 with the photos of all slain generals with captions such
as "their blood ask for revenge". And you know what? Rawlings did not detain
or arrest anyone one of them.
Our machine is now OK, can I go back to work and leave Gambia Lers do what
they do as I used to do?
Thanks





>From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The private media in the first and second republics.
>Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 16:27:35 +0000
>
>Good day to you too.
>
>Mr. Hydara wrote:
>
>"You are right, in the Magazine category, in addition to The Spectator, we
>have Tourism Concern and Sheriff Bojang recently published the second
>edition of his coloured magazine Xpress".
>
>Mr. Hydara, there is also The patriot and another newspaper that is/was
>being edited by Jeggan Grey-Johnson at least some months back. I have not
>seen him for a couple of weeks but would provide the name of the paper and
>other details when I finally catch up with him.
>
>You also Wrote:
>
>"On Decree 70/71, we recalled that it was Decree 70 that was first
>conceived
>and promulgated. But the government realised that due to some kind of
>precipitation, the people it was meant for were completely
>forgotten: there was nothing ordering newspapers to re-register. So,
>bringing in Decree 71, which clearly did the job, rectified the shot. It
>specifically ordered all existing newspapers to re-register and in addition
>it multiplied the bond by 100. During the colonial period the bond was
>pegged at 100 Pounds; at independence that amount was converted to D1000.
>The decree also provides for fines not less than D10, 000 and not more than
>D50, 000."
>
>Mr. Hydara, I would have been more comfortable you had reproduced the two
>decrees in their entirity. I will however give my understanding of the
>above
>statements as meaning that decree 70 originally required all new newspapers
>that were to be established in future to sign a D50,000.00 bond. This was
>later ammended by decree 71 to apply to existing newspapers as well.
>
>My understanding of a bond is a writen or spoken agreement guranteeing to
>make good such agreement when required to do so. In other words, it is
>similar to a bail bond and that none of the papers were actually required
>to
>pay a deposit. It also seems to me that the idea is to ensure that any
>paper
>that is convicted and fined has the  ability to pay the fine. Frankly Mr.
>Hydara, if that is the case I don't have a problem with that. If I may add
>also that the stipulated fines for skin bleaching and the possession of
>skin
>bleaching creams and products seem to be much harsher than the above.
>
>You also wrote:
>
>"And the court empowers by the decree to close down a newspaper in
>addition to the fine imposed on it for contravening the provisions of the
>principal Act meaning the original Act."
>
>Again I don't have any problem with that. If the original Act says you must
>sign a bond of D50,000.00 to enable you pay for any future fines that may
>range from D10,000.00 to D50,000., otherwise you cannot register your paper
>and if you fail to comply with that order we will take you to court and the
>court can fine you any between D10,000.00 to D50,000.00 and also close you
>down. That, to me, is very logical and I don't have a problem with that
>either.
>
>You also wrote:
>
>"You seem to think my narration strengthened your point. Now one
>cannot equate the two situations of the media for the simple reason that
>THE
>FIRST REPUBLIC, AS SEEN IN MY LAST TAKE, FAVOURED THE DUE PROCESS OF THE
>LAW
>IN MOST CASES rather than the harassment, detention etc. etc. we are
>accustomed to under the transition and the Second Republic.
>I must hasten to add that we would have preferred that we go to
>court as it was the case with Halifa Sallah, Sam Sarr and Sidia Jatta for
>Foroyaa in 1994 and later with Pap Saine (your father-law?) Alieu Badara
>Sowe and Ebrima Ernest for The Point, in 1995.
>All the above people won their cases against the state." Emphsis-mine.
>
>Mr. Hydara, whereas you don't seem to think so, but you are actually
>strengthening my point! From the above quotation, you have confirmed that:
>
>1) During the first republic, "IN MOST" cases and NOT in all cases, the
>media were refered to due process of the law rather than harassment
>(Emphsis, mine). You even confirmed this harassment of the media in the
>first republic in your earlier post when you listed some of the people who
>were picked up on a number of occasions by the defunct NSS and also the
>imprisonment of one, Baa trawalleh.
>
>2) You have also told us, from the last paragraph I have quoted above, that
>due process of the was followed in the cases of Halifa Sallah, Sam Sarr and
>Sidia Jatta for Foroyaa (1994) and Pap Saine, Aliew Badara Sowe and Ebrima
>Ernest for The Point (1995). Were these cases not during the second
>republic
>and as such the due process of the law applied in each case?
>
>I rest my case here for now.
>
>Have a very good day, Gassa.
>
>PS. Pap Saine can confirm than I am married to his late brother's daughter,
>Sainabou of 42 Glouscester street, for the past 13 years and my last son
>was
>named after him.
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
>
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