By Pa Louis Thomasi
“The Pen is mightier than the Sword”. It is evident the world over that governments with all their “might” and the extensive machinery that they have at their disposal at all times, still have a great phobia for the media. The architect of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, once said that he fears four hostile newspapers more than a thousand bayonets. Like Napoleon, most governments to this day, especially rogue regimes, fear the media mainly because of the stinking dinosaurs and rhinoceros skeletons they have in their cupboards. Any government that is engulfed in massive corruption scandals, gross human rights abuses and unfulfilled promises made to its citizens must be worried about the media. Why? Simple; because, it is the media that will continue to ring the alarm bells on such governments to remind them of their failed promises and most importantly the endemic and institutionalised corruption that has captured the state.
Governments’ fear of the media did not just start yesterday, but predates even independent Africa. Media enthusiasts like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and our own Edward Francis Small utilised their newspapers as their most crucial political weapon to fight and agitate for independence. Azikiwe’s West Africa Pilot, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s Accra Evening News and Edward Francis Small’s – The Gambia Outlook, Senegambia Reporter and The Gambia Echo were the vanguard newspapers that championed the independent movements in Nigeria, Ghana and The Gambia and rattled the cages of the colonial masters.
The recent wrangling, naggings and hullabaloo of the Barrow Government through the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, must be understood from the context that this is election year in the Gambia, and the Barrow government with its already stinking record and failed promises would not like the media to continue to highlight its failures most especially while they are on the campaign trail. The solution; silence the media.
This, in my humble opinion is exactly what the Barrow Government is trying to do. The quickening acceleration of the “Broadcasting and Online Content Licensing, Registration and Authorisation Guidelines, 2026; and Journalists Registration Guidelines, 2026, can only be seen as an attempt by a desperate government to conceal its failures and rob the citizenry from having access to reports that highlights these gross failures through the media most especially the investigative reports. This unwarranted action by the Ministry, is a fruitless exercise in its entirety, a complete waste of public resources; a reckless naked parade of idle restrictive regulations, guidelines and policies that have no place in a democratic society”.
“No democratic government has the right to decide who amongst its citizens should practice journalism or not.” The licensing and registration of journalists in a democratic society is illegal. Any form of registration and licensing of journalists and media workers has the tendency to undermine media freedom and can cause severe restrictions on journalists and media workers’ fundamental rights to access information. State- controlled regulation undermines media freedom and freedom of expression and jeopardises the safety and security of journalists and media workers.
The Inter –American Court of Human Rights ruled that mandatory licensing “Violates both journalists’ rights to express their views and the public’s rights to receive information”. The media as the Fourth Estate of the Realm has an indisputable mandate to inform, educate, mobilise and correlate the citizens for democratic participation. Journalists and the media in general, therefore, are crucial for fulfilling the public right to know, to seek and receive information in order to make informed choices, most especially during a crucial election year.
Mandatory state- controlled licensing or registration brutally gives government an underserved privilege to decide who practices journalism. Licensing and registration of journalists and media workers through state- controlled institutions is “susceptible to abuse” as governments will surely politicise these regulation mechanisms to silence journalists and media houses that are critical of their policies and programmes. State- controlled licensing and registration opens the floodgates of discrimination in terms of access to information and creates an unhealthy competition between media houses, as those favoured by the government will have more excess to government held information as compared to those that are critical of the government.
There is no doubt that the media needs to be regulated. However, best practices have shown that Self- Regulation by journalists and media organisations themselves is the most ideal in terms of placing journalists and media workers under check and in adherence to the ethics of the profession. The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, which was adopted in Banjul, during the 68th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on 10 November, 2019 and entered into force on 17April, 202 states in Principle 16 (1): States shall encourage media self-regulation which shall be impartial, expeditious, cost-effective, and promote high standards in the media.
Self- Regulation therefore through the initiatives established by the Gambia Press Union (GPU) in this regard, the Media Council must be supported and respected by the government. The Barrow Government is not in any way interested in enhancing media professionalism, all that the government is interested in, is to control the narrative, cow the media and subtly impose self- censorship. The independent media cannot be surrendered into the hands of political robots who will suspend media houses at will.
The Gambia Government must unequivocally without any form of reservation withdraw these idle restrictive regulations, guidelines, policies and frameworks that are unconstitutional and pose a direct threat to media freedom, freedom of speech and access to information. Governments’ focus should be directed at creating a conducive environment that would allow the media to carry out its noble duties in the public interest without any form of interference or intimidation that will subject media houses to prior censorship and journalists to self- censorship.
Governments come and go but the independent media stays intact. An independent media that stands for the public interest is embedded in truth and born into a tradition that ruthlessly expose corruption, gross human rights abuses and stands as the champion of the oppressed in the defence of the fundamental rights of the citizenry. The independent media must continue to build and set the agenda and inform and educate the citizens to make informed choices irrespective of illegal media restrictions.
