The media scene has witnessed a mammoth transformation over the years.
The foregone has made it possible for people to disseminate reports from the comfort of their homes.
The ease with which amateur persons ostensibly presenting themselves as journalists report occurrences have come with its variant of challenges for media practice.
The breaches and the infringements upon the rights of individuals by some media persons in the name of a free press have created several hiccups some of them leading to little push and pull.
Unfettered freedom of expression which must be protected so that its place in a democracy can be assured comes with an equally reciprocal regime of responsibility on the part of journalists.
The program aims to provide a platform for media executives, managers, and other stakeholders to support journalists in producing quality and professional content, and to promote a culture of ethical reporting in The Gambia yesterday ended at the Ocean Bay Resort. It was organized by the Media Council of The Gambia under the theme “Dialogue on Improving Quality of Media Content in The Gambia.”
New regimes come with their challenges of newness and accompanying nuances such as post-Criminal Libel has presented us with.
Recklessness on the part of some journalists has been noticed as it has for law enforcement agents.
Law enforcement and the media often disagree on approaches to enforcement, a situation that has jaundiced the relationship between the two.
The passion with which the Gambia Press Union is working day in and day out to defend journalists is admirable as the union defended the rights of its colleagues and justifiably so.
We commend the executives of the GPU for their continued efforts to defend journalists.
The few isolated cases of seeming abuse of journalists in our opinion especially since they are not committed by state actors do not constitute sufficient blemishes to warrant our demotion on the chart of media freedom.
Considering where we were earlier and the milestone we are today, we have every cause to pat each other on the back.
We have noticed what happens in the worst country to be a journalist, Somalia, and how some members of the inky fraternity over there have sought refuge in neighbouring Kenya.
We have observed how inputs for media practice such as newsprint, and power costs among others are threatening the survivability of newspaper houses and radio stations.
The foregone in the face of acute dearth of advertisements from the government and the private sector when reversed by the introduction of a policy of more advertisements by both the formal and informal sectors to media houses would be a wonderful contribution towards the cause of free press and democracy.