The Gambia Press Union, with support from the British
Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is implementing a
project aimed at strengthening ongoing efforts at building national consensus
on Access to Information (ATI) and media self-regulation.
The project seeks to address public misconceptions about ATI and media freedom and contributes to reform of laws, policies and practices to enable and ensure free flow of information and responsible journalism.
Activities under this three-month project began on
Monday, 8th February, 2021 with a nationwide sensitization tour on ATI and
media self-regulation.
“The access to information bill was submitted to the
National Assembly in December 2019, and we are hopeful that it will be passed into
law soon,” GPU President, Sheriff Bojang Jr., said at the opening of the
sensitisation tour in Banjul on Monday. “If this happens, it will be a great
achievement for this country and citizens in our quest for democracy and
progress.”
The seven-day nationwide tour is being facilitated by
two teams from the CSO Coalition on ATI, with one team covering regions in the
provinces while the other team focuses on regions in urban Gambia – Banjul and
West Coast Region.
There will be two fora in each of the seven administrative
regions of the country and participants will include area councillors,
traditional women singers, youth representatives, and regional authorities.
John Charles Njie, Chairperson, CSO Coalition, said
when a country is in transition, it needs a basis to move to the next stage.
“And one of the foundations that we need as a country is to have an access to
information law,” he said.
The Gambian process of developing the draft ATI bill
started in 2016 with the GPU rallying more than 50 civil society organisations
to ensure it was inclusive, and today, a CSO Coalition on Access to Information
is the face and force behind the bill.
British High Commissioner to Banjul, David Belgrove,
said an access to information law is a very powerful tool; it is one that is
essential in any democracy.
“Any public body should be accountable to the people,
and that’s not just media, it is not just civil society, individuals as well.
This is a very important step in consolidating the Gambia’s democracy which
your people struggled so hard to achieve,” he said in his keynote address on
Monday. “Transparency is absolutely essential.”
The National Assembly Member for Banjul South,
Fatoumatta Njie, said “it is an honour to be here [in Banjul] talking about a bill
that is very close to my heart, because I do advocate for freedom of
information and democracy.”
“Without an access to information law, you can’t hold
your elected representatives accountable. Personally, I want public information
requests be made available both in hard and soft copies,” Hon. Njie said.
