With the new era of detention of journalists, the country is undeniably heading in a wrong and dangerous direction under President Adama Barrow. On 25 September 2024, the president’s lawyer sent a letter to the Voice Newspaper threatening to sue for defamation if a retraction and an apology were not made by the newspaper. Fortunately, the Voice Newspaper showed courage and refused to apologize or retract the story.
Suing for defamation is anyone’s right and Adama Barrow is free to sue if he believes he has a case. Furthermore, suing someone for defamation is a civil case, which means it does not entail any of the parties unfairly leveraging the power of the state to advance their case. If the issue between the President and the Voice Newspaper remained only a civil case, I would have nothing to say about the matter.
But the issue has now taken an ominous turn. On the evening of 26 September 2024, the police called Mr. Musa Sheriff, the managing editor of the Voice Newspaper for questioning. The journalist who wrote the story, Momodou Justice Darboe is now under arrest and charged with “false publication and broadcasting”. This is outrageous and wrong. What this means is that Barrow’s government wants to use the power of the state now that the threat of a lawsuit has failed to intimidate the Voice Newspaper.
Let’s consider the merit (or lack thereof) of the initial civil case. One does not have to be a legal expert to realize that there is no merit to a defamation case against the newspaper in this situation. The article in question was published on 24 September 2024 and quoted anonymous sources as stating that President Adama Barrow had chosen Muhammed Jah as his successor. The article also quoted opposing views. For example, Lamin Queen Jammeh, the NPP spokesperson, dismissed the claim as “hearsay”. As far as I can see, this article followed standard reporting practices.
To have a viable case for defamation, the supposedly false claim has to bring serious harm to a plaintiff’s reputation. How does reporting on leadership intrigue in politics in general or more specifically, reporting on a political leader’s possible decision on a successor, be deemed to have harmed an individual’s reputation? The speculation on his possible successor may well be politically inconvenient for President Barrow, who is determined to cling on to power for as long as he can. But it is laughable to claim that an article reporting on this issue is defamatory. No reasonable reading of that article can be considered “libelous”.
What is really disturbing is that this issue has now taken the character of a criminal case by having the police summon the managing editor (Musa Sheriff) for questioning and charging the reporter (Momodou Justice Darboe) with a crime. This development in the case suggests that the government is aware that President Barrow’s civil case has no legs and therefore would be ineffective in intimidating the Voice Newspaper. Instead, the power of the state through the police, is now being used to frustrate and intimidate the newspaper and its reporters.
This is also a message the government is sending to other members of the press and critics in general. Whether the cases against Musa Sheriff and Momodou Justice Darboe are dropped later or not is no longer important in the broader discussion of democracy and press freedom in the country. The fact that a criminal case against at least one of them has been initiated sends a message. The goal is to intimidate. This is likely to have a chilling effect on the ability of the independent press to report on the government and the ruling party. This therefore enables the incumbent to escape scrutiny as we approach the next elections.
It is very likely that both the civil and the criminal cases would be dropped simply because they have no merit. After all, this is what has happened to most of the cases of other people who were similarly arrested for supposedly criticizing the president or the government. Most of those cases have gone nowhere because they were baseless. But the mere detention and scrutiny by the police is intended to instill fear in those targeted and the broader public at large.
It should not be lost on people that the Voice Newspaper is one of the few media outlets that the government did not select to receive payments a few months ago, which was essentially a bribe for positive coverage. The lack of selection was because of their independence. It is a matter of simple inference to reach the conclusion that the government is going after this independent press because they refuse to be mouthpieces.
President Adama Barrow should know that one cannot consider himself a leader of a democratic nation by going after independent journalists who are simply doing their jobs. If a leader is confident in his development agenda and accomplishments, his government does not need to pay journalists for positive coverage. Moreover, there is no reason why a leader that is wisely counseled should be offended by mere reporting on possible succession plans.
There cannot be a real democracy without a free press. And therefore, all Gambians should be concerned about the government’s actions against the Voice Newspaper. If we stay silent about this, our democratic rights would be eroded before we realize it. The victims today are Musa Sheriff and Momodou Justice Darboe. But once independent journalists start to get silenced, the next target is the freedom of expression itself. And the main victims of that assault would be the ordinary citizens.
