Arfang Madi Sillah, a Washington D.C.-based Gambian scholar and commentator, has written a compelling and thought-provoking ebook titled The Curtain Falls on the Press and Presidency Relationship—Barrow Goes Berserk.
Known for his incisive political evaluation and deep understanding of Gambian affairs, Sillah examines the fraught relationship between the press and the presidency in The Gambia, notably below President Adama Barrow’s administration.
Below is an abridged model of the ebook.
Chapter 1: A Marriage of Convenience
In the euphoria that adopted Yahya Jammeh’s much-celebrated departure, the Gambian media discovered itself at a precarious crossroads, straddling the road between cautious optimism and profound skepticism. For many years, below the tyrannical fist of Jammeh’s regime, the press had been a battered and bruised entity—pushed to the margins, suffocated by censorship, and, at occasions, snuffed out with brutal precision.
Jammeh didn’t simply silence dissent; he obliterated it, as one may crush a mosquito—swift, ruthless, and with little regard for the implications. But with Adama Barrow’s ascent to energy, there was a collective sigh of aid throughout the newsrooms of Banjul and past.
It appeared as if the lengthy nightmare of press suppression had lastly come to an finish. Barrow, an unassuming political determine with the air of a person who had stumbled into energy, promised democracy, reform, and, most tantalisingly, freedom for the press.
Even the late Pa Nderry Mbai, probably the most combative voice in Gambian journalism, couldn’t cover his elation. Mbai’s Freedom newspaper and radio station had, in some ways, led the cost that finally toppled one of the vital brutal regimes in fashionable African historical past.
For Mbai and his comrades within the media, Jammeh’s ousting was proof that no dictatorship, irrespective of how entrenched, may stand up to the relentless pursuit of reality. His broadcasts, usually from the diaspora, had stirred the pot sufficient to maintain the fireplace of revolt alight, and now he stood victorious—or so it appeared.
But as any Fleet Street editor will let you know, the glow of political victory usually dims below the tough mild of actuality. Barrow, who had ascended to energy with guarantees of press freedom, quickly revealed the identical outdated methods of the commerce, wearing new robes.
The early days of Barrow’s administration have been crammed with fastidiously staged gestures, designed to lull the media into a way of safety. Smiles have been exchanged, palms shaken, and an air of cooperation appeared to hold over the corridors of energy. For a fleeting second, the press thought it had lastly discovered an ally in authorities—a meek chief who understood the worth of a free media. But, as with all political theatre, the opening act was little greater than a well-rehearsed ruse.
What adopted was a deft train in manipulation, cloaked in such quiet subtlety that solely probably the most perceptive observers may grasp its full extent. Barrow, desirous to distance himself from the brutish techniques of his predecessor, didn’t include golf equipment or weapons. He got here with a smile, handshakes, and gives of excessive workplace.
The press, as soon as a ferocious beast, was invited into the halls of energy, the place it might dine on the similar desk because the very politicians it had spent years scrutinising. The first notable transfer got here when Demba Ali Jawo, a veteran journalist whose pen had usually skewered the Jammeh regime, was appointed Minister of Information.
To many, this appointment appeared a sign that Barrow meant to uphold the values of transparency and press freedom. After all, what higher method to show one’s dedication to the Fourth Estate than by elevating one in all its personal to the corridors of energy? But in hindsight, it was step one in what would develop into a methodical marketing campaign to neutralise the press.
Soon after, Ebrima Sillah, one other revered journalist, was named Director General of GRTS, The Gambia’s state-owned broadcaster. His rise by means of the ranks was cemented when he too was promoted to Minister of Information, a place that positioned him on the coronary heart of Barrow’s communications equipment.
As the months wore on, different acquainted faces from the world of journalism have been additionally drawn into Barrow’s ever-expanding inside circle. Amie Bojang-Sissoho grew to become Director of Press and Public Relations on the State House, whereas Dr. Ebrima Sankareh assumed the position of presidency spokesperson.
To the untrained eye, this parade of appointments gave the impression to be the last word endorsement of press freedom—a authorities that genuinely valued journalists. But for these with a nostril for political theatre, the reality was a lot darker. By welcoming journalists into the fold, Barrow wasn’t empowering them; he was taming them. Much like the way in which Vladimir Putin turned Russian oligarchs into lapdogs by giving them a stake in his regime, Barrow had found out that one of the best ways to silence the press was not by means of brute power, however by means of co-option.
For the press, this was the start of a sluggish, regular decline. Once fierce critics of the state, journalists now discovered themselves in authorities, sipping tea in air-conditioned workplaces, far faraway from the gritty realities of investigative reporting. The boundaries between the press and the state grew to become so blurred that, for all intents and functions, they now not existed. It was paying homage to what occurred in Hungary below Viktor Orbán, the place journalists have been methodically absorbed into the state’s equipment till the once-robust press was diminished to a shadow of its former self.
The co-option didn’t cease on the higher echelons of the media. Lower-ranking journalists, who had as soon as made names for themselves by exposing corruption and holding officers accountable, quickly discovered themselves in comfortable authorities jobs, usually with salaries and perks far exceeding what they’d earned of their newsrooms. Notable figures like Sana Camara, Nyfally Fadera, Lamin Njie, Bai Emil Touray, Aminata Sanneh, and Prince Baboucarr Aminata Sankanu, who had as soon as been vocal advocates for press freedom, have been now comfortably ensconced within the very buildings of energy they’d as soon as railed in opposition to. It was, in some ways, a wedding of comfort—journalists traded their pens for pay-checks, their ideas for status.
Given the appreciable variety of high-profile appointments of journalists into the ranks of Adama Barrow’s authorities, one may fairly have anticipated a harmonious and productive relationship between the state and the media. One may even assume that such a wedding would foster coherent authorities insurance policies, rooted in efficient communication.
However, in what can solely be described as a most paradoxical flip of occasions, it seems that many, if not all, of the previous journalists now embedded inside authorities circles are proving to be even much less succesful than the politicians they as soon as vociferously criticised. Their once-vocal critiques have been silenced, and of their place, we discover nothing however obsequiousness, carried out with a zeal that might not appear misplaced in a grand Greek tragedy. The longer these people stay ensconced in authorities, the extra their shortcomings are laid naked for all to see.
Not solely is their ineptitude more and more uncovered, however their incapability to inform reality to energy actively undermines the federal government itself. Far from offering the constructive critique required to form sound, solution-based public insurance policies, these former journalists mislead the federal government, providing little greater than sycophantic flattery. They have develop into complicit in perpetuating poor selections, thus deepening the malaise of governance somewhat than providing the trustworthy insights essential to deal with it.
From the attitude of anybody with even a modest schooling, it’s clear that almost all of presidency communications—whether or not within the type of press releases or coverage paperwork—are usually not solely poorly composed but in addition marred by blatant plagiarism. This revelation begs the query: who had been writing these journalists’ articles once they have been within the newsroom? Were these supposed top-notch journalists counting on ghostwriters all alongside, or did they owe their semblance of competence to the skilful palms of editors, who painstakingly reworked their crude drafts into publishable items?
As if originality have been an excessive amount of effort, Barrow seems to have taken the artwork of co-opting critics straight from the dusty archives of authoritarian survival kits. Rather than craft his personal technique, Barrow, ever the diligent apprentice, appears to have gazed throughout the border and thought, “Why reinvent the wheel when I can borrow it wholesale?”
Barrow’s technique of co-opting crucial voices from the Gambian media carefully mirrors that of his political mentor, former Senegalese President Macky Sall. In Senegal, Sall’s technique to weaken the media was no much less suave. The once-vibrant Senegalese press, hailed as a mannequin of independence in West Africa, noticed its brightest stars co-opted into the very halls of energy they’d as soon as critiqued. Journalists like Abdou Latif Coulibaly, who had fearlessly uncovered corruption in Senegalese politics, discovered themselves occupying excessive workplaces in Sall’s administration.
Coulibaly, as soon as a formidable critic of the state, grew to become Secretary-General of the Government, his voice slowly fading into the cacophony of political sycophancy.
Then there was Suleiman Jules Diop, a heavyweight in Senegalese journalism, who transitioned from anchor desk to authorities communications advisor. It doesn’t cease there. Notable figures equivalent to Yakham Mbaye, previously the editor-in-chief of the influential Le Populaire, ascended to the position of Senegal’s Minister of Communication.
Others, like El Hadji Hamidou Kassé, nestled into Macky Sall’s inside circle as strategic advisors, subtly remodeling the media into little greater than an extension of state energy. The once-vibrant press, a staunch bastion of accountability, was steadily muted, its crucial voices absorbed into the very equipment of presidency they as soon as scrutinised.
With every appointment, the lion’s tooth have been pulled, leaving nothing however a docile creature incapable of dissent. This chilling development was mirrored within the Gambian media below Barrow’s rule, the place as soon as fierce journalists have been plied with authorities positions till they have been now not a menace. It was like watching a Shakespearean tragedy unfold, the place the very critics of the regime grew to become the architects of its propaganda.
However, this façade of concord crumbled when Abdou Latif Coulibaly resigned as Secretary General of the Government on October 7, 2023. His resignation was a direct response to President Sall’s contentious resolution to postpone the presidential election initially scheduled for February 25, 2024.
This delay arose from a tumultuous conflict between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over candidate eligibility, igniting a firestorm of institutional battle that severely compromised the integrity of the electoral course of. In stepping down, Coulibaly invoked a craving for “full and complete freedom” to champion his political convictions, thereby illuminating the deepening fissures inside Sall’s administration and the rising political tensions in Senegal.
This rupture underscores a broader discontent inside the political panorama, as critics decry Sall’s obvious subversion of democratic processes—an unsettling echo of Barrow’s personal stratagems in The Gambia.
Barrow would do properly to heed the cautionary story of Sall’s expertise: no quantity of public relations finesse or media manipulation can finally salvage a corrupt and ineffective authorities. Just as Sall finally confronted the wrath of the Senegalese citizens, Barrow too will discover that the Gambian folks won’t be fooled perpetually. His makes an attempt to neutralise the press could grant him non permanent refuge from scrutiny, however in the long run, historical past is a relentless arbiter.
The folks will demand justice, and once they do, Barrow could discover that the very press he thought he had tamed would be the first to activate him, the very politicians he imagined have been securely in his pocket will abandon him on the first whiff of hazard, leaping ship with the type of velocity solely opportunists can muster.
The bureaucrats he relied on, these trustworthy servants of energy, will resign en masse, turning their backs on him as if he had develop into a leper in a single day. This isn’t conjecture—it has occurred earlier than, not solely to Sall however to his predecessor Yahya Jammeh. In the eleventh hour of Jammeh’s reign, ministers, ambassadors, administrators, and even his most sycophantic cronies scrambled for the exits, disavowing him with the keenness of born-again critics.
It was a spectacle in political treachery: those that had as soon as sung Jammeh’s praises with nauseating zeal all of a sudden discovered their ethical compass, resigning in droves and denouncing him as if they’d solely simply found he was a dictator. The hypocrisy was palpable, as they postured as if they’d been blind to his atrocities all alongside.
Barrow is strolling the identical perilous path, and if he continues, he’ll discover himself starring on this similar tragicomedy. The very folks he has surrounded himself with will, within the remaining act, flip from fawning courtiers to vengeful accusers, every desirous to distance themselves from the approaching wreckage. He will probably be left to face the chilly actuality that, on the earth of politics, loyalty is as fleeting as the facility that sustains it. And when the curtain falls, he will probably be left with nothing however the bitter irony of watching his fastidiously cultivated allies develop into his most fervent critics, their newfound ethical readability as hole as their loyalty as soon as was.
In a nutshell, the wedding of comfort between Barrow and the press is nothing new. It’s a story as outdated as time, repeated all through historical past by leaders who consider that by shopping for the silence of their critics, they will safe their place in energy. But as each Fleet Street editor is aware of, you’ll be able to’t muzzle the reality perpetually. The watchdog could have been coddled into submission for now, however there’ll come a day when it remembers methods to naked its tooth. And when that day comes, Barrow will discover himself very a lot alone, betrayed by the very journalists he as soon as sought to manage.
To be continued.
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