Claim: Under the Barrow administration, no journalist was tortured or imprisoned, or a media house closed or burnt down.

Source: Report of the Gambia Delegation to ECOWAS Parliament

Verdict: False

A 5-member delegation of Gambian lawmakers have presented a report on Gambia’s democratic gains under the Barrow administration since 2017 before the first ordinary session of ECOWAS Parliament on May 11, 2023.

The report highlighted, among others, the gains the country made in the area of press freedom. The five-member delegation is the Majority Leader and representative of Kantora Constituency, Hon. Billay G Tunkara who was the head of the delegation, Minority Leader and representative of Brikama North, Hon Alhagie S. Darboe, representative of Banjul South Hon. Fatoumatta Njai, representative of Niamina Dankunku Hon. Samba Jallow, and representative of Kombo South Hon. Kebba K Barrow.

Claims:

In their report presented by Hon. Darboe, the lawmakers rated press freedom as one of the major achievements of the Barrow administration. A section of the report seen by Malagen claims the Barrow administration “can boast of the fact that since it came to power in 2016, no journalist had ever been tortured or imprisoned, or a media house closed or burnt down”.

Fact-Check:

On January 26, 2020, the Gambia Police Force (GPF) arrested two journalists and closed two media houses. The Journalists arrested were Pa Modou Bojang, the proprietor of Home Digital FM situated in Brikama, and Gibbi Jallow the manager and presenter of King FM situated in Tallinding.

Bojang and Jallow were arrested and their media houses were closed on the day a pressure group calling itself “Three Years Jotna” took to the street demanding for Barrow to honour his 3-year agreement with 2016 Coalition partners and resign. The 2 radio stations were closed for more than a month and the 2 journalists were bailed after being charged with a single count of Incitement of violence.

And 8 days before lawmakers presented their report before the ECOWAS Parliament, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) threatened to take punitive action against King and Home Digital FMs, a move condemned by press freedom advocates as a threat to press freedom. After a strong pushback from advocates, PURA took a u-turn on its decision. This and similar violations were detailed in the Gambia Press Union (GPU) 2021 State of Press Freedom report.

On June 2, 2021, one of the photographers at the Presidency, Modou E. Njie, also physically assaulted journalist Buba Gagigo who works for Kerr Fatou Online News. Gagigo was covering the president’s registration for voter’s cards. According to the GPU, a formal complaint was filed at Banjul Police Station, but no charges have been made against the alleged assailant.

Also, in April 2021, a Foroyaa newspaper journalist– Yankuba Jallow– was attacked by a prison warden while covering the trial of the former senior officials of the National Intelligence Agency who were charged with the murder of opposition activist Ebrima Solo Sandeng.

In its State of Freedom of Expression report released in 2021, the GPU said “no investigations were carried out on this incident”.

Verdict: The claim by lawmakers at the ECOWAS Parliament is false

This misinformation alert was published with the support from the UN Peacebuilding Fund through UNESCO Dakar office under the project: countering hate speech and promoting responsible digital citizenship in The Gambia. The project is being implemented by the Open Media Centre (OMC), the publisher of Malagen.