We all remember Dodou Sanneh of GRTS formerly maga Dou of Radio Syd. Well, if you do not, here is a brief biography.
In 2006, to impress upon Gambia’s donors, benefactors and international partners, Yaya Jammeh gave into pressure demanding a level playing field for all political players if Gambia’s elections were to be certified as free and fair by the international community of observers. Part of those requirements was equal access to the media by all parties, especially access to state media.
In fulfilment of that requirement, Gambia Radio, and Television Services (GRTS) gave minimal airtime to all candidates and parties vying for the presidency of The Gambia in the 2006 presidential elections. Part of that media access included covering the political activities and rallies of all candidates including the opposition.
Here is the sad case of GRTS reporter Dodou Sanneh, who was assigned to cover the activities of the largest opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP). On September 7, 2006 he was arrested and detained at one of the many secret detention centers of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), one of Jammeh’s many torture outfits masquerading as state security institutions. What was his crime? Doing his job. Dodou Sanneh reported what he saw and commented on the size of the crowd that followed the UDP in his report. Apparently, that was not pleasing to Jammeh, so through his lackey, Momodou Sanyang, Director General of GRTS, Sanneh was fired, but not before his illegal detention and torture for merely doing his job.
Dodou Sanneh would never fully recover from that ill-treatment until he succumbed to his illness in 2018, an illness that was no doubt a result of his treatment by Jammeh’s agents. Media Foundation For West Africa (MFWA) was aware of his case and took issue with Gambian authorities, we urge them, to yet again be aware of current trends in The Gambia and bring global attention to the growing unfriendly media environment under Jammeh’s successor Adama Barrow.
Seeing people like Modou Joof, a former colleague of Dodou Sanneh following Adama Barrow around as a translator, just as he did for Jammeh, and happily repeating similar vitriol against media practitioners is disappointing. Indeed, ‘The Dictator Is Us.’
The case of Dodou Sanneh is worth mentioning because it is a stark reminder of how democracy dies in darkness. The media is regarded as the fourth estate. Through media practitioners and their efforts to report issues by shedding light on the activities of elected officials, the citizens are informed of the conduct of those elected to undertake tasks in the name of the people. Through the media, public servants and elected officials are held accountable. This is how democracy thrives. The opposite happens when the media is muzzled and forced to turn away from scrutinizing issues of public interest, democracy dies.
With its power and resources, the state singles out and brands journalists and media houses critical of the government as opposition elements or enemies of the people by spreading lies, that through such media practitioners, the country’s security is threatened. This was the case with The Independent newspaper, Citizen FM, and Radio 1 FM as well as journalists like Deyda Hydara who paid the ultimate price because he refused to stop challenging a government that promised accountability, transparency, and probity when they first assumed power.
For tyranny to thrive, the citizens must hear only one narrative: the state’s account. Anyone critical of the state or offers to scrutinize the state’s account of any issue, should not be accorded a platform to speak, especially to a large audience. The state broadcaster, GRTS holds the same view, from the days of Dodou Sanneh to now, GRTS does not accord any airtime to voices critical of the government rendering the medium nothing other than a propaganda outfit.
Private media practitioners on the other hand are not subject to government funding and have a free hand to choose their programming. Although some have chosen to deliberately parrot the government’s line without any push back, some have chosen to be more critical of the establishment and accord critical voices a platform on their medium. Two local media outfits in The Gambia; Kerr Fatou Media and Suu FM Radio are specifically targeted and mentioned by name, by Gambia’s President Barrow as such unfriendly media that the state should censor simply because they offer a platform to dissenting voices.
Barrow and his minions are determined to muzzle these two media houses and their proprietors for no other reason than the fact they accord a platform to dissenting voices.
The case of Baboucarr Gaye’s Citizen FM comes to mind. This radio station not only reported the news, it had a very popular program called ‘Newspaper Review’ that was dedicated to translating the contents of daily newspaper publications into Mandinka and Wolof thereby providing access to their contents to a wider segment of Gambia’s largely illiterate population that Jammeh wanted to keep in the dark. He knew the reach of the local dailies was limited to the urban areas of largely self-censored citizens concerned more about self-preservation than challenging the ills of government. So, Jammeh was not as bothered by them as he was with radio stations. Citizen FM widening the reach of newspapers whose content would have otherwise remained widely inaccessible was unacceptable to Jammeh, so he shut down the radio, like many others. Sadly, Adama Barrow’s current minister of works, Ebrima Sillah was the anchor that translated the newspapers into Mandinka for Citizen FM and was targeted by state agents before he fled to exile.
The programs on Kerr Fatou and Suu Radio FM, with the latter’s flagship program ‘Mengbe Kering’ (current affairs) are conducted mainly in Mandinka, the language of the Gambia’s largest ethnic group understood by most Gambians, especially rural folks amongst whom the illiteracy rates are higher.
Shutting down, or muzzling these two giants, as far as Gambia’s media landscape is concerned, would effectively give Barrow almost total control of the narrative on the realities of The Gambian situation and so he has declared war on them and their proprietors.
The government’s most favored media outlets, besides GRTS are West Coast Radio and a couple of other radio stations with limited reach even within the urban areas and with programs mostly in English that essentially cuts off access to information for large swathes of citizens in the Mandinka dominated Kombo regions (part of the urban regions), the largest voting bloc in the country.
Making regular appearances on these mediums and conducting interviews in English is enough for the government to claim that they are accessible to the media and to cite such private entities as testament to how free the media landscape is. These mediums may not necessarily be pro-government per se, but their reach is miniscule both in terms of band width and language access.
Another advantage of using such mediums is that they are more formal in their set up for questions and answers. Mengbe Kering on Suu FM and Politic Kachaa on Kerr Fatou are designed to be interactive with open analysis and discourse. Both allow for phone-ins from listeners and viewers respectively, according the ordinary citizen an opportunity to comment on issues analyzed in the programs. This no holds barred aspect to their programming is especially irritating to Barrow. He specifically mentioned them on his rants and protested that they are cause for censorship and threatened the arrest of the proprietors of these media outlets by claiming that such access accord citizens the opportunity to “insult officials”. Essentially, Barrow does not want to hear from the citizens whose lives his policies impact.
The Gambian constitution has no definition of what constitutes an “insult” making the interpretation of the term a subjective one. In Gambian cultural contexts, telling someone that they lied is considered an insult even when the lie is obvious. So where do we draw the line for what constitutes an insult when everyone has a different interpretation of it? But more importantly, it is an assault on freedom of expression when the state wants to put parameters on the choice of words one can use to express oneself and how one feels. Besides, the state has access to the mediums and could use it to clarify issues of concern.
The Gambian constitution provides for legal remedies when someone feels slandered, and it offers remedies for libelous publications. But in his increasingly tyrannical tirades, Adama Barrow has no desire to uphold the rule of law. In fact, the president of The Gambia, has declared on record that he would give specific orders to the Inspector General of Police and would demand that even if a judge rules to release someone on bail, that court order would be defied according to the president’s instructions. Adama Barrow is confusing his personal feelings with the law, the very definition of L’État, c’est moi.
In essence, the law and the judges’ interpretation of it be damned, citizens’ rights would be abused if their views offend the president. Welcome to tyranny and authoritarianism; the death of democracy and the rule of law.
Immediately after that public declaration by the president, Alaji Bora Sisawo, a panelist on Baadinya Kachaa a popular public affairs and social commentary program on Kerr Fatou was called to report back to a local police station and was informed that his bail was revoked. The popular comedian and social issues commentator was initially detained by the police for comments he made about the resurgence of military coups in West Africa. He was released on bail without charge and continued with his program for weeks before being called back by the police and detained again without charge. Everyone suspects that the IGP received his orders to execute the president’s wishes albeit illegal. Up to the time of this publication, his whereabouts are still unknown as the police refused to divulge that information. Barrow is determined to reintroduce Jammeh’s tactics of intimidation and suppression. Detaining people at secret locations and denying them access to their families or legal representatives is the first step. To follow in quick succession would be torture and enforced disappearances since the government can deny knowledge of the whereabouts of detained individuals. Sadly, The Gambia’s law enforcement agencies, this time the police, are willing to be complicit in the abuse of the rights of Gambians after being used as tools of oppression by Jammeh. Sadder still is their willingness, as an institution, to be active participants in such abuses after all the traumatic revelations of abuse uncovered by the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) set up in the aftermath of Jammeh’s ouster.
Thus far the Gambia’s National Human Rights Commission has not issued any condemnation of such blatant and brazen assaults on our constitutional order and the threat they pose to individual freedoms, not to speak of the potential for chaos and anarchy across Gambian society. Never Again, a slogan of the TRRC is a phrase being offered mere lip service it seems.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance – Thomas Jefferson. But it seems in The Gambia, we desire to sleepwalk into another era of abuse that can only end in tragedy as is the case with all state sanctioned abuses.
So, help us God!
Stay tuned for a look at the assault by the Barrow government on organized political dissent…
Mankajang 