By Omar Bah
The leader of the Gambia Moral Congress Mai Fatty has supported President Adama Barrow’s claim at the UN General Assembly that there had been no jailing of political prisoners, including human rights defenders and journalists, in the country since 2017.
“I will further assert and support President Barrow’s UN Speech that since 2017, no politician, activist or journalist was jailed by the Barrow administration. Admittedly, a number of politicians, activists and few media persons were arrested and detained but none were convicted and sent to prison or jail,” he told The Standard.
Fatty, a trained lawyer, however added that in legal parlance, “jail” and “prison” are interchangeable, depending on the jurisdiction.
“I failed to appreciate the redundant hullabaloo about this jail noise. Yes, it is a fact that no journalist has been jailed, which is another word for prison, under this government. President Barrow is therefore correct to have asserted at the UN General Assembly, that The Gambia is perhaps the only country in Africa, and one of few countries in the whole world without any political prisoners,” he said.
As a Gambian, he added, “I feel extremely proud of this unprecedented achievement, and in my view, every Gambian and African should be equally proud of such remarkable record”.
He said it is absolute incontrovertible fact that throughout Gambia’s entire political history, President Barrow is the most politically tolerant Head of State and under him The Gambia has become a leading democracy in terms of human rights in Africa.
“That the President intends to sue certain journalists for defamation is in itself historic in terms of its democratic relevance. Having felt aggrieved by the publication, the President exercised his clear democratic citizenship discretion, decision and right by seeking to resort to the judiciary, and not use brute force as is customary in most African countries and elsewhere in Western Europe and the United States,” he said.
He added: “How many times did Mr Donald Trump as president of the most powerful democracy on earth persecuted journalists and media houses he deemed unfriendly? France has gone beyond persecution and is currently prosecuting the founder of multimillion dollar international social media communication platform ‘Telegraph’ for not censoring free communications on the platform? Few days ago, international social media communication giant now known as “X”, formerly Twitter, was fined and paid millions of Dollars to the Mexican government for breach of free speech.”
“As I speak, the United States government in Congress is working extremely hard to severely restrict the free speech capabilities of TikTok, under the false guise of social protection. Countries like Germany and others promulgated laws to stifle free expression such as it relates to the holocaust and other issues deemed “sensitive”. No Western nation enjoys better freedom of expression than The Gambia of today,” Mai Fatty stated.
