The announcement being broadcast by GRTS Radio and TV says that by Friday midday [14 May 2004] all newspapers that will not have registered with the Media Commission must cease publication. This means that poor newspapers that respect and value the Rule of Law are in trouble because they want the due process of the law to be exhausted.

What is the matter in hand? When the [National] Assembly passed the bill in August 2002, the independent media petitioned the President, citing some of its unconstitutional clauses. [President] Jammeh never acknowledged the letter.

The GPU and some of the media houses were forced to resort to the Supreme Court to verify the constitutionality or not of the Commission as established. In the interim, the plaintiffs also filed an application for the Commission to be restrained until the determination of the main suit. When Justice Arif sat as a single judge over the application in September 2003, he dismissed it without giving reasons leading to the decision.

We again sought redress from the full session of the court, which upheld Arif's decision. Ethically, we felt that the same Arif who sat over our case as a single judge should not have sat as president with other judges to judge the matter for the second time. But it happened and the appeal was in February 2004 dismissed. Again, our lawyer discovered some irregularities in the said ruling and filed for a review of the said ruling. We have been following all along the due process of the law and it is our right to exhaust it.

All that is needed is for the Commission to hold on until we hear from the full panel of seven judges of the Supreme Court and then and only then can the authorities say that we have overstepped our bounds. As matters stand today, we are demonstrating our great respect for the judiciary by allowing due process to take its course. We expect the custodians of the law of the land to be the first to respect its sanctity.

(The Point, Wednesday, 12 May 2004)
(Reprinted with permission)