In October 2024, the Afrobarometer outfit published one of its survey findings focused on corruption and public trust in public institutions. The findings indicated an increasing trend in corruption between 2018 and 2024 in several public institutions with the State House and the National Assembly leading the pack. It also showed a dwindling trend in public trust in public institutions.
On March 26, 2025, six months later, the Voice newspaper published a story on the survey with the headline, Survey reveals corruption at the Presidency, National Assembly’. The story centred only on the survey findings.
The next day, i.e., today March 27 the Minister of Information Ismaila Ceesay, speaking on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez said he had summoned the editor of the newspaper with executives of the Gambia Press Union, the Media Council and the newspaper publishers’ association to his office to complain about the story. He said the headline was misleading and the story was damaging to the Government. He particularly picked on one word, ‘reveal’ in the headline to pontificate about the purpose of perception surveys, while describing the Gambia as a young and fragile democracy, etc.
Let’s be clear: For any newspaper article, when media critics, experts and academicians as professionals sit over it to review, surely, they would point out various technicalities. Practically any and every story published in any newspaper on earth, such experts can raise issues with the appropriateness or otherwise of the headline, content, language, angle, format, etc.But the Minister of Information is not a media critic, and the issue which Ismaila has with the headline or story does not require summoning the editors of the newspaper
. Should the newspaper have said the survey ‘revealed’ or ‘indicated’ or ‘reported’ or ‘showed’ or use another choice of word? Does that matter? Thus, the only thing Ismaila could have done if he was not happy with the story was to send a rejoinder to the Voice newspaper to express his disagreement with the story or ignore them.
One of the sources of news for journalists is survey reports, which come in different types including perception surveys. The surveys that Afrobarometer conduct are legitimate and authentic reports that should interest not only journalists but also governments, students, policymakers, development workers, activists and so on. A perception survey is a legitimate tool in research and development.
The Gambia Government itself had relied on surveys which they used to trumpet their success. Ismaila Ceesay himself recently made references to the Mo Ibrahim African governance reports to tout the position achieved by the Gambia. He also had made references to the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index to claim that corruption is being addressed in the Gambia. Therefore, Ismaila cannot impugn perception surveys as less authentic.
In October 2024, Ismaila Ceesay did not summon Afrobarometer when they released this survey report. Why therefore is he unhappy about the Voice newspaper story today about the same survey? If he has a problem with the story, there is a Media Council in place to lodge a complaint. But to directly summon the Voice editors is an act of intimidation against the independent media.
The Minister must be reminded that Section 207 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of the media, which includes the media to hold the Government accountable on behalf of the people. The Minister cannot generate imaginary fears and then uses that to harangue journalists in the name of ‘responsible journalism’ and ‘fragile democracy’.
Every day, everyone sees stories in our newspapers that one may not like for one reason or the other. But no citizen has the right or authority to summon and compel the newspaper to change their headlines or apologize. Similarly, just because one is in a position of power does not mean a minister can therefore police newspaper headlines and contents and make them apologize when he feels that they tarnish the image of the Government.
There are laws in place against which newspapers and everyone are held accountable. Can Ismaila Ceesay show which law has this Voice newspaper headline and story violated? There is none. Therefore, why should he summon them to force them to apologize. This is not the way to protect our so-called fragile democracy. I hope the GPU, the Media Council, and the Newspaper Publishers Association will go back to engage the Minister to make him realize his boundaries.
For The Gambia, Our Homeland – Gust Editorial