By Momodou Darboe
The UDP has advised the IEC to devise a code of conduct that will instruct GRTS on its treatment of political parties in the country. After its apparent failure to provide full coverage for the annual congresses of various political parties, the GRTS last Saturday provided a minute-to-minute coverage of the launch of the NPP.
The party said it was concerned that GRTS has reinvigorated the old ways of the dictatorship by dedicating undue airtime and screen space to the activities of the government.
Speaking in an interview with The Standard, the spokesperson of the UDP, Almami Taal, explained that the employment of GRTS as a propaganda outfit for the government of the day runs parallel to the laws of The Gambia.
“For every event involving the government, you have a full coverage from GRTS and almost all their programmes are exclusively for government officials and functionaries. It’s in contravention of the laws of The Gambia,” Taal pointed out.
He continued: “The state broadcaster has, for a very long time, discredited itself. Nobody takes them seriously. Very few people actually watch GRTS but the organisation responsible for the elections – IEC – and the participation of political operators in the public space should [also] have a code of conduct to take effective action on these matters.”
Mr Taal said his party doesn’t feel disadvantaged by GRTS’ coverage of government activities because “GRTS cannot shape public opinion”.
“If at all, it’s the BBC or CNN or even Tfm where a lot of people look to for their opinion and get different perspectives, then you would have said their coverage is impactful one way or the other,” Taal said.
He said the UDP was only concerned by the “reincarnation” of the old habits of the past dictatorship.
In assessing the turnout on Saturday, Taal said: “You have to look at the crowd critically. Who were there and why were they there? Some people were very curious to see what was going to happen. Some, I hear, wanted to see Wally Seck and Viviane [Chidid] perform. There are so many reasons but the important thing is, what were the messages, the takeaways? You can have a large crowd but not of consequence electorally. Most of these people are probably not registered to vote. They were there not in support of a particular agenda or political party. They just wanted to be part of the ambiance. So, really it is not a yardstick to measure popularity.”
“You have had a government away from the people for five years and it is now time to take stock and soberly assess the impact of that five years,” Taal pointed out
