Karamba,

You should read my posting once again, because I do not think you read it. The comparison between GRTS and the other networks is simple to show you that we are not doing anything different when it comes to covering the Executive Branch of the Government. You could read it any how you want, that is you prerogative.

As far as covering UDP, you should find out from them how many times they requested for coverage, compared to how many times we covered them. The complains from them is not that we are not covering them, but that we do not give them enough airtime. We cover them and all other political parties including the (APRC) for the news and our news reports are normally no more than 5 minutes. I want you to ask members of your party how many times they have invited us or inform us of their press conferences.

We did not release our internal guidelines earlier, because there were some issues GRTS and the private media raised during the meeting with IEC, which they are yet to address. However, our internal guidelines have already been sent to the various political parties and the IEC since yesterday. Once I know that the political parties receive them, I will release it in this forum.

The campaign period is only two weeks (15 – 29 March) and we are ready for it. GRTS is only required to give each candidate 20 minutes and to charge them equally for the adverts and announcement, something we are already doing.

Karamba, of all people you know that I would love to have the candidates debate on GRTS if they are ready. This is something we already expressed to the ICE and we are looking to it.

We had a some town meeting live on radio and television on the ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT, THE NEW EDUCATION SYSTEM, etc. and I chaired and moderated all. As a matter of fact when the IEC released the newly Demarcated Constituency, I wrote to all the political parties, the Speaker of the House and the ICE (Bishop Johnson) and invited them to a live town meeting to debate the new constituencies. You will be disappointed to know that only PDOIS responded and were the only political party that was ready to come and discuss this matter. You can check with you UDP colleagues.

We even wanted to cover the proceedings of the National Assembly with our cameras and they refused. So you see Karamba, even if we were to call the candidates for a television and radio debate, if they do not want to participate, we make them do it.

As far as our programme genre is concerned, you can criticise all you want. We know we are doing the our best to educate, enlighten, entertain etc. and the majority of Gambians appreciate it. You criticism is welcome and will only make us work harder and redouble our efforts. I am used to being criticised. Do you know that every year I face the nation for two hours live and invite the public to criticise us. They would call in and crticise us and we would accept their criticism in good faith.

 

PEACE

Tombong

 

 

 

 



>From: TOMBONG SAIDY <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fair Media Access
>Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:40:27 -0500
>
>GRTS is owned by all Gambians and does not belong to President,
>Tombong
>Saidy or any particular Gambian for that matter. It is the Public
>Broadcasting institution of The Gambia, similar to the PBS in the US
>or BBC
>in the UK.
>
>GRTS is not bias against any individual or group of individuals.
>People
>often accuse us of all sorts of things, but one need to understand
>that GRTS
>is the public media and should therefore behave responsibly.
>
>One mistake that most people make is to fail to differentiate
>between Yahya
>Jammeh as the elected President of The Gambia and Yahya Jammeh as
>the Leader
>of the APRC. We cover the Executive, The President, and not the
>APRC. APRC
>is the ruling party, just as the Republican Party in the US is now
>the
>ruling party.
>
>GRTS would cover all activities of the President whether it is
>Jammeh or any
>other president. Those of you in the US, how many times have you
>seen Dole
>on television after his defeat? Those in the UK, how many of you
>even
>remember the name of the opponent of Prime Minister Tony Blair
>during the
>last elections? The point is, the President of The Gambia should be
>adequately covered by the media, GRTS in particularly. When
>President Jammeh
>goes to the Supermarket, it is news worthy. When any opposition
>leader goes
>to the Supermarket, it is not news worthy. It is as simple as that.
>All
>branches of Government are being covered and we will cover the
>Secretaries
>of State as well. Some official activities of the Secretaries of
>States are
>also covered adequately.
>
>When the Budget is delivered to the National Assembly for example,
>we make
>sure that we have the reactions of the opposition members and we
>carry it
>live without editing it or even attempting to edit it. We do the
>same
>whenever the President addresses the National Assembly (State
>Opening of the
>National Assembly, equivalent to the State of The Union Address by
>the US
>President).
>
>When President Jammeh travels, GRTS would cover him adequately. The
>constitution requires the President to make at least one annual tour
>of
>country, Meet the People Tour and GRTS would cover the tour and
>broadcast it
>for all Gambians with access to radio and television to see or hear.
>When it
>is time for campaign, like this up coming by-elections, all
>candidates and
>political parties will be given equal airtime. We have already met
>with the
>IEC on this and our internal guidelines would be publicised soon.
>Check CNN,
>CBS, ABC or any American Media House and see for your self how much
>coverage
>the President has on weekly basis. All major media houses in the US
>have a
>permanent representative at the White House and they cover the daily
>activities of the President. I do not see any thing wrong with GRTS
>doing
>it. The Presidency is the nerve centre of the country and has to be
>covered
>and we will continue covering the President's activities without
>apologies.
>
>We do cover political rallies of both the ruling party and
>opposition
>parties. We have a policy whereby organisations, institutions,
>Departments
>etc should give us at least one week notice for their activities,
>especially
>those being held in the provinces. For the Greater Banjul area, if
>we have
>48 to 72 hours, we normally try and cover. And this applies to all
>political
>parties as well. As a matter of we did cover more than 90% of the
>requests
>from the political parties. We request for an advance notices so
>that we can
>plan properly. We have limited resources, both manpower and
>material. All
>political parties have to do is to inform us in advance and we will
>do our
>very best to cover them.
>
>Karamba, you do not have to wait a new government to lobby for GRTS
>to be
>independent. GRTS is already independent and the bill will be
>presented to
>the National Assembly this year to formalise it. We have been
>independent
>from GAMTEL since January 1st 2001 and now we have our own Board of
>Directors and we are expected to sustain our self financially.
>Government is
>contributing D2.5 million per annum, and GRTS is expected to
>generate D6
>million and the Parastatals will be contributing as well and their
>contribution will be turn in to equity when GRTS becomes profitable.
>
>As far as GRTS Management is concerned, all Gambians are equal and
>would be
>treated the same. Be rest assured that the coming elections would be
>covered
>adequately and all candidates and political parties would be given
>equal
>access to GRTS. There is an unfair advantage that incumbents enjoy
>in every
>country, the US included. These are realities we have to accept.
>
>PEACE
>
>Tombong
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
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