On the 14th November 2020 the Gambia Press Union held a peace walk to commemorate International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalist.
The peace walk started at Alliance Francaise and ended at the traffic lights Kairaba Avenue. At the end of the walk the minister of information and communications Infrastructure was handed the Union’s position paper on safety of journalists and the research report on the abused meted on journalists under former president Yahya Jammeh from 1994 to 2016.
Lamin Jahateh GPU’s programme manager gave a short speech and highlighted some of the key recommendations in the position paper.
“We now calling the government to take proactive measures on the safety of journalists and to make sure it is part of the national dialogue. Wherever the rights of journalists are violated we want the office of the president like the GPU does to condemn that act. That’s what we are recommending in the position paper.”
He also took the opportunity to call on government to encourage relevant authorities to investigate all acts of violence against journalists and media professionals from 2017 to date and that they are brought to justice.
Ebrima Sillah the information minister whilst receiving the position paper said they as a government know fully well they have to work with the media for people to know exactly what is going on in the government.
He added “the key recommendations from your report will be studied we will look at them critically.” He stated that the issue of presidential press conferences is a matter of time and that they want to see it happen,Sillah also added that the media is very critical in any democracy and advised the media to support the government, to remain professional and do everything possible to be balance and fair in their work.
The walk saw many female journalists turn up and Gibbi Jallow who earlier this year was arrested and his radio closed for covering a protest calling for the step down of president Adama Barrow.
