President in new spat with private journalists

Local media reports in Gambia denounced on Monday as “repugnant and reprehensible” President Yaya Jammeh’s comments on the current standoff between the government and the private press over a newly created National Media Commission, which last week extended by three months the deadline for independent journalists and media organisations to register. President Jammeh said in an interview Saturday afternoon, aired on state-run Gambia Radio and Television Service (GRTS), that private journalists who failed to register with the commission at the end of the three months would “end up in Hell” if they continued to practice. “We believe in giving each fool a long rope to hang themselves. After three months there will be no more compromise,” Jammeh said. “They will either register or stop writing or go to Hell,” continued the jammeh who came to power in a coup d'etat in 1994. Press freedom has come under increasing pressure in Gambia. In the past, Jammeh used to threaten to bury journalists “six-feet deep”. President Jammeh’s latest outburst has drawn swift reaction from local private journalists. The Secretary General of the Gambia Press Union, Pa Nderry Mbai retorted: “We are ready to go to Hell if that’s the price we must pay in defence of press freedom.” Under a state decision, all private media houses and journalists, were required to register with the newly created NMC last Friday or cease to operate. Fearing that the commission would not be impartial, private media decided last week on a self-inflicted ‘blackout’ as protest. The Information Minister Amadou Scattred Janneh agreed last week to extend the registration deadline for a 90-day period to “enable the parties to arrive at a resolution of the matter of registration through dialogue”. But the composition of the NMC and the powers vested in it remain a big concern as it can deny registration to any individual or organisation without giving any reasons. Led by the Gambia Press Union, independent journalists have taken the NMC to court over some of its powers, including those to register journalists and force them to reveal the sources of their information. Although journalist insist they are not opposed to the idea of a regulatory mechanism for the media in Gambia, they dismissed some of the provisions of the proposed NMC as draconian and unconstitutional. They accused the government of wanting to control the private press as it does the state-run media, which is not allowed to report the opinion or activities of opposition politicians. In an open letter to the Gambian president, the editor of The Point, a three times a week private newspaper, Deyda Hydara, said he was appalled and disappointed by Jammeh's comments. “The utterances are totally repugnant and reprehensible and we reject them in the most vehement manner,” Hydara wrote.