The
Point’s London-based Europe correspondent for over a decade has stressed the
need for the new government to not only protect the rights and freedoms of the
Press in The Gambia, but also to bring to book those who killed, tortured and
humiliated journalists for merely informing and educating the public.
Mbye,
who had worked for the Daily Observer during the early years of the coup that
brought Yahya Jammeh to power, later became the most senior reporter at The
Independent Newspaper headed by Dr Baba Galleh Jallow and Alagie Yorro Jallow.
He
was also an international correspondent for The West Magazine based in London.
However,
reporting on sensitive issues such as human rights, the rule of law, voter
registration fraud, corruption, the blood diamond, naked injustice, the Kanilai
Futampaf where a dysentery outbreak was reported and confirmed by the Medical
Department, he became a target of the defunct National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
Later
Mbye suffered personal attacks at his home, constant harassment, arrest and
detention in isolation and was brutally tortured by the agency resulting in
medical treatment both in The Gambia and in the UK.
Mbye’s
detention later ended in court when the NIA refused to present him before any
court of law or disclosed where he was kept.
“If
I could recall, it was only in my trial that the NIA through a senior state
lawyer ever admitted in court that I was kept under their custody and was
tortured… prompting the then senior judge named Justice Belgore describing the
agency as the German Gestapo,” Mbye said.
Immediately
after the court proceedings, Mbye revealed to Gambians, the International press
and the world how he was imprisoned and tortured. He disclosed the names of all
agents and officials involved such as Demba Ceesay, Wassa Gassama and Babou
Njie. Supervisors were the then Director General Abdoulaye Kujabi, with senior
officials such as Tijan Bah and Sukuta Jammeh.
‘These
men who were involved during those awful times and days torturing me using life
cables, laughing and electrocuting me, cannot keep walking freely in the
streets of Banjul and expect a closure’.
Mbye
who obtained a law degree in the UK stressed that The UN Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) article 1
‘properly defines torture and clearly prohibits such practices’.
He
added that The Court of Human Rights has also given a general defining
description of Torture and of what makes treatment or punishment ‘inhuman or
degrading’.
The
leading case, he added, is Ireland v UK, adding that it further ruled that
treatment which violates ‘Article 3 cannot be justified in terms of public
benefit’ and in both Balogh v Hungary; Ahmed v Austria; ‘ill treatment cannot
be lawfully justified by reference to some greater social good that may be
achieved’.
Mbye
continued: ‘Obviously the deliberate inhuman treatment causing serious and
cruel suffering is torture…and consequently, where officers tortured people
like me or intentionally subject them to other degree of ill treatment, the
State is responsible to see to it that justice prevails’.
Mbye
said the Gambia Press Union (GPU) should be supported and protected fully.
‘Many of my colleagues had suffered tremendous injustice and had to flee their
homeland, and now it is time that any form of discrimination and prejudice
against the press is stopped’.
He
emphasised that the case of journalists like late Deyda Hydara and Chief Manneh
cannot be swept under the carpet.
However,
he added: ‘I am optimistic now, especially when respected journalist Demba Ali
Jawo is appointed by the coalition as Minister of Information, Communication
and Technology’.
Mbye
said that he has high regards for President Barrow and other coalition members,
who are respected and cherished members of the public. They also suffered
untold suffering as opposition politicians in a very hostile environment.
It
was one of the reasons why he came to attend this year’s Independence
Celebration as a sign of respect.
Mbye
noted: ‘I had interviewed them over the years, covered their press conferences,
political meetings and rallies both in the urban and rural areas and had a
professional relationship with them…But now they must unite because unity is
their strength, and that is what the voters expect from them…It is for the
benefit for all and sundry or else our ambition for democracy and free society
where everyone is equal will be in vain’.
Mbye
said that Journalists he met, both here and abroad, wish to contribute their
quota to national development without bias, and further improve their CV in
that regard.
It
was one of the reasons why when he relocated to the UK, where he was able to
use his experience as a journalist in The Gambia combined with previous
training he acquired in Accra, Ghana, and Lagos, Nigeria to pursue his desire
to collaborate and work with the press.
‘After finishing my studies in journalism
(Newspaper, Radio and TV), I became a recognised member of the National Union
of Journalists (NUJ) and had attended meetings, courses and training courses in
London, Birmingham and Manchester… Then I was able to successfully complete the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA 2000) Course at the Arthur House’.
Explaining
why he switched to law, Mbye explained that it was ‘due to my prime concern and
interest in legal Issues. I then proceeded to university to study Law. After
successfully obtaining an LLB Honours Degree, my enrollment was granted by the
UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Later, I was invited by the UK’s
Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) to undertake a
Competency Assessment Programme Course in order to be a Legal Adviser’.
Mbye
also emphasised strongly that we must embolden our great institutions such as
GAMTEL, GRA, the Energy and Tourism industries, as well as other private sector
institutions, especially the construction companies like TAF Holdings, for
‘exposing the significance, talent and capability of the country to the outside
world’.
Despite
all the upheavals, Mbye added: ‘I personally appreciate the tremendous support
of the International Community, especially the UN, EU and the United States as
well as the AU and ECOWAS for a tremendous support. International Press Groups
and Human Rights Associations such as Amnesty International should be highly
commended’.
However,
one of the most urgent and important proposals to be considered by the
coalition, according to Mbye, is by ‘strengthening our bilateral ties with
Senegal, and if possible reviewing the Senegambia Confederation as soon as
possible’.
He
concluded: ‘I personally witnessed how Senegal supported the Gambian refugees
as family members…After all Gambia is Senegal and Senegal is Gambia’.
