Dear editor,
A statement by Musa Amul Nyassi, APRC National Assembly member for Foni Kansala to The Standard that “there is no direct link of junglers’ crimes to Yahya Jammeh” is unconscionable, deplorable, insensitive and outrageous.
The crimes perpetrated by Yahya Jammeh that were shrouded in secrecy for two decades have been laid bare by the TRRC so for a presumably respectable person of Nyassi’s ilk to be cynical about the commission and the startling revelations therein is really baffling and mind-boggling. The comments are insensitive to the people of the Gambia, particularly the victims of Jammeh’s brutality.
What further evidence does APRC need to substantiate longstanding claims of their leader’s savagery, after all that has transpired at the TRRC. We heard from the horse’s mouth: The Junglers.
The AFPRC needs to apologize to the people of the Gambia, distance itself from Jammeh and disown him or at least keep mute, rather than hurt the feelings of the torture victims and the families of those who lost their precious lives as a result of Jammeh’s brutality.
Basidia M Drammeh
Government and FatuNetwork did
the right thing, but we need more
Dear editor,
This is what is called responsible journalism. You have indeed taken the right decision and your integrity and credibility therefore remain in tact!
But above all what this means is that when you have a free space you encourage accountability.
This means to criminalize news is counter productive and undermines professionalism. For example in this case we saw the Government issue a rejoinder to dispel the news story as false.
In that case the Government has succeeded to put pressure on FatuNetwork without arrest or torture or enforced disappearance of anyone. But by responding to the story the Government has made the media house to hold itself accountable by retracting the story and apologizing.
This is the beauty of freedom and democracy. They seek to generate self restraint and therefore make people demonstrate responsibility and maturity.
If the Government had arrested FatuNetwork journalists for this story the rest of the world would have come on the side of the journalists even if their story was false.
This is because people understand that journalists can also make mistakes deliberately or not but that’s not a reason to clampdown on them when the Government could easily provide a rebuttal to discredit that media house. For that matter media offenses must not be criminalized.
Therefore I call on the Minister of Justice to seek the repealing of such media offenses as sedition, false news and false publication among others in the Criminal Code and the Information and Communications Act.
There is no need to keep those laws in our books when we The Government could easily address the errors of the media without violence.
Let us endeavor to be different and better that Yaya Jammeh.
When we allow a free and open space to prevail we encourage therefore professionalism, ethics and accountability to prevail.
Let’s help ourselves! Freedom is what can ensure peace, development, and justice in society.
Madi Jobarteh
Boraba Village
