Gambia: Government to reform repressive media law
The Gambia's Council of Ministers has decided to revoke the Act passed two years ago establishing a National Media Commission that was considered repressive and unacceptable by all standards. Now, the Executive has drafted a new Bill to repeal the infamous NMC Act No.7 of 2002, which was enacted despite numerous appeals and protests from local and international press freedom organizations against its passage.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), [email protected]
Gambia ALERT: Gov't to reform repressive media law
ALERT - The Gambia's Council of Ministers on Wednesday, October 20, 2004
decided to revoke the Act passed two years ago establishing a National Media
Commission that was considered repressive and unacceptable by all standards.
Now, the Executive has drafted a new Bill to repeal the infamous NMC Act No.
7 of 2002, which was enacted despite numerous appeals and protests from
local and international press freedom organizations against its passage.
According to a press release signed by the Gambian Minister for Information
and Communication, Dr. Amadou Janneh, the repeal will "soon be adopted by
parliament which is expected to meet shortly". It is not known when the
meeting will take place.
The legislation, which received presidential assent on August 5, 2002,
created the National Media Commission as a quasi-judicial body with
extensive powers to control, sanction, penalize, fine, even suspend and
close down media houses and organizations and, in some cases, sentence
journalists to terms of imprisonment. The Commission also lacked the
independence required of a body with such important powers over the media.
While amendments at the end of 2003 removed some of the Commission's
far-reaching judicial powers, independent media executives and journalists
under the banner of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) continued to kick against
several articles of the Act, including one that required journalists and
media organizations to register with the Commission for one-year renewable
licenses.
The GPU, in a civil suit supported by other organizations including the
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), instituted action in the Supreme
Court of the Gambia against the NMC, the Minister for Information and
Communication and the Attorney General, challenging the constitutionality of
the Commission. The matter is yet to be disposed of due to the inability of
the Chief Justice to empanel the requisite number of judges to hear the
case.
The Media Foundation for West Africa welcomes the move by the Gambian
Council of Ministers and urges the country's National Assembly (Parliament)
overwhelmingly made up of representatives of the ruling party, to ensure the
early repeal of the Act and an equally early enactment of a new one that
meets international press freedom standards and guarantees media freedom in
the Gambia.
Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director (MFWA)
Tel: +233-21-242470
Fax: +233-21-221084