The Gambia Press Union in collaboration
with the Civil Society Coalition on Access to Information, on Thursday began a
two-day seminar on Access to Information in Elections
for 45 media professionals and civil society activists.
The workshop, held at
the Baobab Hotel from the 25th to 26th February, 2021, is
funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, NED.
It is aimed at sensitizing the media and civil society actors on access to
information (ATI) in elections and also popularize the ACHPR guidelines on
elections.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Muhammed S. Bah, the
Vice President of the Gambia Press Union, said as the 2021 elections draws
closer, access to information becomes a key component of the electoral process.
“Access to election-related information is crucial
to the integrity of electoral processes in any democracy, particularly our
emerging democracy,” Bah said. “ATI empowers the electorates to make
well-informed choices and also enhance transparency and accountability during
elections.”
According Bah, The Gambia is one of a few English-speaking
West African countries without an ATI Law. The right to access information is
guaranteed by Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Right as
an ‘invaluable’ component of democracy.
He added that GPU and the Civil Society Coalition on
Access to Information are urging the Parliament to pass the ATI bill.
“The aim of this workshop is to sensitize civil
society activists and the media on the pending ATI bill and electoral reforms,
with the hope that they would champion the campaign by way of engaging both the
public and National Assembly Members to help push for the enactment of the bill,”
Bah said.
In his address, John Charles Njie, Chairman of the
CSO’s Coalition on ATI, said that there is need for citizens to access
information. However, he was quick to add that, it goes with the requisite
understanding of how to report and handle information in order to avoid
spreading disinformation.
“…and that’s why we are having this
engagement to be able to throw light, to be able to come on the same page and
have a better understanding of accessing information especially when we get
into the election campaign period and everything that has to do with election,”
Njie said.
Rod Hawes, Executive Director of Gambia Federation
of the Physically Disabled, said the plight of persons with disabilities should
be considered in the access to information bill. Hawes said The Gambia has more
than 10% of people living with disabilities, based on research from the Global
Journal of Science Frontier.
“Access to information for the disable community is
no different from access to information by anyone else. What
we do noticed is that we do not get any short of, or particular information,”
he said.
Hawes added that at the moment they are
loosely in consultation with the independent Electoral Commission on a number
of issues.
Honorable Halifa Sallah, the Chairman of
the Interparty Committee, said the media plays a key role in promoting
democracy. He urged journalists to desists from hear-say and encourage them to
always fact-check the information they are putting out.
Sainabou Drammeh, a Program Officer at the
Gambia Press Union, said the workshop is part of a project called Improving
Transparency and Accountability in Electoral Processes in Africa - a joint
project between Zambia, Uganda and The Gambia funded by NED.
Ms Drammeh also presented the findings of
an assessment of the existing legal framework on ATI against the African
Commission Guidelines on Access to Information. She guided participants on how
to fill an information requests form, which would be processed by the GPU on
their behalf.
During the course of the two days, the participants
were taken through the role of civil society on access to information in
elections as well as the ACHPR Guidelines on elections. Journalists and CSO
activists shared their experiences on accessing information in elections at Plenary
discussions and information sharing sessions.