(MFWA/IFEX) – On 14 December 2004, the National Assembly, The Gambia’s rubber-stamp Parliament, passed the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2004, in spite of local and international appeals and protests by journalists and human rights bodies. The act amends provisions of the country’s Criminal Code, which previously provided for a fine on conviction for defamation. Under […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 14 December 2004, the National Assembly, The Gambia’s rubber-stamp Parliament, passed the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2004, in spite of local and international appeals and protests by journalists and human rights bodies.
The act amends provisions of the country’s Criminal Code, which previously provided for a fine on conviction for defamation. Under the new act, any journalist found guilty of libel, slander and related offences, now loosely defined to include the “wilful, negligent, or reckless publication or broadcast” of “derogatory, contemptuous or insulting” material, is “liable to imprisonment for a term not less than six months, without the option of a fine”. The act also states that a person’s claim that they did not know the information or news was false cannot be used as a defence against defamation, “unless it is proved that adequate measures were taken to verify the accuracy of the information or news”.
According to MFWA-Gambia sources, Secretary of State for Justice Sheikh T. Hydara claimed that the amendments were necessary because existing laws were “not adequate enough to protect citizens from the excesses of the media and journalists.”
The media and journalists in The Gambia have been reeling under a succession of anti-media-friendly legislation that the government-dominated Parliament has passed to muzzle the independent media and undermine the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of citizens to free expression.
On 13 December, the government, which holds over 96 percent of the seats in the National Assembly, forced passage of the Newspaper Amendment Act, 2004. The act effectively nullifies all existing registrations of private media establishments in the country and requires that they re-register within two weeks. In addition to the exorbitant increases in registration fees, each media outlet is now also required to post a 500,000 dalasis (approx. US$17,000) bond. Media outlets previously had to post a 100,000 dalasis (approx. US$3,400) bond.
Ironically, these new restrictions come just as sustained pressure from local and international protests forced the government to repeal the controversial and widely discredited National Media Commission (NMC) Act (Act 2002, No. 7) on 13 December. The Gambia Press Union (GPU) and other media stakeholders in the country had appealed to the Supreme Court, challenging the NMC Act’s constitutionality (see IFEX alerts of 15 December and 22 October 2004, 4 September 2003, 1 August, 7 and 2 May 2002).
