Good morning, Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, colleagues, partners in the media and civil society.
It is an honor to welcome you all to this year’s commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, a day that gives us the opportunity not only to celebrate the vital role of the media in building democratic societies but also to reflect on the conditions under which journalists work both globally and here in The Gambia.
It is also set aside to reflect, reaffirm, and reenergize our collective commitment to press freedom, media development, and the rights of journalists everywhere.
This is a Day to raise awareness of the importance of press freedom and to hold governments accountable to their commitments to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent binding conventions that seek to promote and protect the right to free expression and freedom of the press.
Global Theme
This year’s global theme, “Reporting in the Brave New World: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom and the Media,” urges us to pause and consider how the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping journalism.
From algorithmic content creation to deepfakes, data mining, and audience targeting, artificial intelligence is changing not just how we tell stories, but also how truth is accessed, contested, and defended.
While AI offers opportunities for innovation and efficiency, it also raises urgent ethical, safety, and credibility concerns for journalists particularly around misinformation, bias, and job displacement.
While AI offers tools that enhance journalism worldwide in terms of open-source intelligence, creative content, and tackling misinformation and disinformation, it brings with it risks and surveillance threats to journalists and their profession.
AI-generated content, curated from works that journalists have put so much effort on, also raises concerns about fair remuneration for journalistic content and media viability.
Media Freedom and Responsibility
In The Gambia, we are observing these shifts while facing our own local realities. That’s why our local theme “Media Freedom and Responsibility” is both timely and important to contextualize our own challenges and aspirations.
This theme speaks to the heart of what we do as journalists in exercising our constitutionally-guaranteed right to report freely and to hold government to account.
However, we must do so with a deep sense of duty and responsibility to society, adhere to our journalism ethics, and be accountable to the public we serve.
Freedom and responsibility must go hand in hand; a free press must also be a fair, accurate, and principled press.
Currently, there is a noticeable lower standards of journalism practice in some quarters within the media sector, with some media houses increasingly leaning, editorially, to one side of the political divide – which generally affects the fundamental journalistic principles of impartiality.
The rush to publish and the increasing publication of sensationalized and exaggerated news stories have further dent public trust in the media and significantly lowered professional standards.
Plagiarism (the deliberate use of another’s content) without consent and proper attribution, the use of opinions in news stories and frequent grammatical mistakes – shows dwindling editorial standards and the lack of capacity in some newsrooms.
These are reflections that the GPU wants media owners, managers and editors to holistically reflect on in order to restore high level of standards in Gambian journalism and public trust.
Hire those who can do the job and pay them well to maintain them.
Press Freedom Situation
The Gambia has not made any progress in this year’s Global Press Freedom Index published yesterday by Reporters without Borders. The country holds the same position as last year, 58th position globally – and dropped one place in Africa to 11th position.
Some of the factors highlighted as reason for the stagnation related to the arrest and detention of journalists and court proceedings brought against them, notably, The Voice Newspaper case. Other reasons include economic challenges that include high taxes and a lack of subsidies for the media, a lack of political will to ensure the safety of journalists, the lack of implementation of the Access to Information law, and the existing draconian media laws.
In March this year, The Gambia defied the 2018 ECOWAS Court Judgement when the National Assembly passed the Criminal Offences Bill which contains a draconian provision on “False Publication and Broadcasting”. The GPU had presented and submitted a position paper to the National Assembly Human Rights Committee recommending for the removal of the provision which was widely used to repress the media during the dictatorship, and is currently being utilise by the Government to achieve the same results as the dictatorship – to harass, intimidate and force the media into self-censorship and abandon its obligation to the truth and duty to the people of The Gambia.
Despite Gambia’s Supreme Court Ruling in 2018 that declared the previous internet law unconstitutional, the current government is make more dangerous laws that would significantly affect press freedom and freedom of expression.
The Cybercrime Bill, 2023 has provisions that go beyond addressing false news online, with a direct attempt to punish investigative journalism and to kill transparency and accountability in government. The GPU has also presented and submitted a position paper to the National Assembly Committee on Education and ICT.
However, these exercises are increasingly becoming a mare box-ticking exercise to say all stakeholders were consulted by the Committees, when our observations, concerns and recommendations are ignored by the very lawmakers who are supposed to promote and protect fundamental human rights.
Since 2017, we have noted continuous physical assaults on journalists that are never investigated nor taken to court and none held accountable. The threats, harassment, and intimidation of journalists and media houses continue both online and offline. Government’s selective patronage of media houses in terms of advertisement and funding is also a cause for concern – hence the need for an annual media subvention that can be fairly utilised.
Working Conditions
The GPU is also concerned by the poor working conditions faced by Gambian journalists. The media landscape is made up of a majority of young journalists and women journalists combined, who are striving to give their best in the face of inequality and exploitation.
Young journalists are overworked and underpaid, and in many instances, even these little payments that can’t give anyone a decent life anywhere in The Gambia, are significantly delayed, sometimes by up to three months or more.
We would like to urge media owners to work very swiftly towards addressing these concerns. These conditions are highly unacceptable and we therefore would like to urge media houses to not only sign the GPU’s collective bargaining agreement, but also to fully implement.
We should hold ourselves to the same values and standards that we hold others and respect the rights of media workers, our code of conduct and build public trust.
I thank you all for your kind attention.
GPU President, Isatou Keita
GPU WPFD 2025 Commemoration
