By Omar Bah
Dr Ismaila Ceesay, Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, has dismissed concerns over the government’s push for mandatory media accreditation as “unfounded”, saying it is essential for “accountability” rather than censorship.
In November 2025, Minister Ceesay announced plans to require accreditation for all journalists by early 2026, targeting unlicensed online platforms competing with regulated radio, TV, and print media.
The Ministry of Information has since drafted a National Press Accreditation Policy for The Gambia and the Broadcasting and Online Content Regulations, 2025.
But the idea has been challenged by at least five former Gambia Press Union Presidents including former minister Demba Jawo, National Assembly Member Madi Ceesay, Sheriff Bojang Jr, Muhammed Bah and Ndey Tapha Sosseh who raised concerns about the motive behind it.
“The National Press Accreditation Policy for The Gambia and the Broadcasting and Online Content Regulations, 2025, though presented in administrative language, introduce systems of registration, accreditation, and executive discretion that collectively signal a return to permission-based journalism. We therefore ask a simple but urgent question: What problem exactly is the Ministry of Information seeking to solve?” the letter signed by the former union heads demanded to know.
Reactions
Reacting to the concerns raised by the former GPU Presidents, Minister Ceesay said the letter writers “have no idea” about what the policy is about.
“They are writing from the point of view of only presumptions. They need to go and get their facts right. They need to know what these two documents are. They don’t understand what they are talking about. They are acting ahead of themselves. They should stop misleading the public and engage the ministry for clarity. I can assure the media fraternity that this is not in any way designed to censor, control or impede their work,” he stated.
Minister Ceesay said the GPU and the Media Council are leading the discussions and the feedback has been very good. “We had a meeting on this framework three weeks ago in my office,” he said.
GPU explains
When contacted for comments, the secretary general of the union, Modou Joof, recalled that in January the Ministry of Information called them to a meeting to review the documents but during the meeting, they raised concerns regarding freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
“Our argument was that there is no legal basis to back their plan for media accreditation and that they should focus on giving the Media Council the legal backing it needs as a media regulator. We promised to share with them a position paper which we did last week.”
At that meeting, Joof added, the Information Minister himself acknowledged that since there is no legal backing for the accreditation policy they would abandon it and focus on media accreditation for government functions.
Joof said the ministry contacted the union last week for a meeting but they turned it down because they don’t want to continue engaging on such issues.
“We made it clear to them that we would only engage if the discussions are focused on finding means to give the Media Council the legal backing it needs,” he stressed.
