Mr President, the situation befalling the press in this country is to say the least alarming. The unprecedented situation has been creeping in slowly but surely into the fabric of Gambian society to the dismay of many observers who blame the regime for this new trend of things hitherto unknown during the First Republic. Citizen FM was the first casualty of this policy of physically disabling media houses. Then came the turn of Radio One, which was almost totally gutted by fire, wounding the owner George Christensen. Alieu Bah of the same station was also subjected to a deadly arson attack. Then The Independent offices were torched before their printing press was totally destroyed by arsonists.

In the meantime, draconian laws to cripple the independent media have been devised; they are Decrees 70/71 and the Media Commission. There were also verbal (anonymous phone calls) and written threats against many of us as publicised in our papers just like the ones that reached The Independent , the BBC and some days later Demba Jawo for expressing his opinions in his column with The Independent . He did not even write news per se but expressed his opinions on matters of national importance. Just as you Mr President do when criticising the UK and the US under the cloak of your right to freedom of expression. If you, a President, can use such a right we wonder what journalists would be waiting for, as it is our trade.

The danger is that some people somewhere cannot respect the opinions published in newspapers including the column conspicuously titled Independent Critique when you did ask journalists 'to please criticise your government when you go wrong'. From the word go, your regime wrongly identified the independent media as its opponent which led you as early as 1994 to describe media people and human rights activists as 'illegitimate sons [sic] of Africa'. The discourse was clearly saying that press freedom and human rights were alien to Africa, thus throwing our rights to the Greek calendars. From then on, government supporters began antagonising the media in all spheres of life as we predicted in this newspaper when you made that dangerous statement.

The problem is that Mr President, you and your supporters antagonising the press failed to understand one thing; that journalists do not invent news, they forward it as they gather it. We are the messengers of both government and the other actors of our national life.

The government and its supporters must also know that we take very seriously our role as translators of the people's aspirations.

We said when one wants acara one must be prepared to bear the pepper. Put simply, that means that if someone takes public office, he or she must be ready to be scrutinised. People who do not want to be in the news must not take up public offices; for all in the public domain must be exposed for the people to pass judgement. Government and supporters must also know that some of us have as published in 1992 and 1994 offered our lives in our social responsibility role. Maybe we are crazy but some of us would be proud to be gunned down or simply be killed for doing just that.

Government and supporters must understand that media people in normal circumstances must check the regime’s stewardship, more so when Section 207 of the Constitution asks us to specifically make government accountable to the people. Government's stewardship must be examined and reported on for the benefit of the governed and no amount of threat or danger will deter us from carrying out such a responsibility. Mr President, these attacks are unacceptable.

Acara is a deep-fried round brownish cake made from ground beans, water, and salt. And it is eaten with pepper sauce. It is delicious, but you have to endure the pepper to enjoy it. It is Deyda's own metaphorical way of saying that if you want anything big out of life, you have to be prepared for certain pains.

( The Point , Tuesday, 17 August 2004)
(Reprinted with permission)