By Yusupha Jobe
Despite Barrow-led government declared for the reopening of two privately-owned radio of Home Digital FM and King FM stations to start broadcasting on Tuesday, the FM radios are asked to wait for the directive of Inspector general of police.
On Tuesday, the government ordered reopening of the broadcast houses after talks with Gambia Press Union, which showed the State also dropped charges on four journalists. The discussion was mediated by National Human Rights Commission.
It also came after the government came under heavy criticism among Gambians.
And speaking to the owner and manager of Home digital FM, Pa Modou Bojang said: “I am only waiting for instruction from the Inspector general of police to starts operating.
I have not yet started work despite announcement from the justice minister that both radio station to reopen, he said.
However, in Tuesday’s talks between government and Gambia Press Union, Justice minister Abubacarr Tambadou said: “what I wish to say is that the government and the GPU have all learned lessons from this episode, and as we seek to strengthen our democracy, there will be shortcomings, not just on the part of the government but also on every other section of Gambian society, including media practitioners.”
He also called on both government and the media fraternity “to learn from the incident so that in the future they can avoid any circumstances that will lead to such situations.”
GPU president Sheriff Bojang said the idea was not just to reopen the radio stations but to also send warnings to those in authority that they cannot keep on abusing power at the expense of the country.
“Though this is a government in transition and a lot of things are expected to be going wrong – in this case, a lot of things went wronged. We came out of a brutal dictatorship during which media houses were closed just through telephone call or somebody showing up without decency or dignity to give you a letter to say you are closed,” he said.
We have seen in this case the same pattern, and we don’t want this to happen. Our hope is that this will not happen again. Our position is that the reopening of the two radio stations and dropping of all charges is a good will, but there is need for more to be done, Mr Bojang said.
