Christophe Deloire, the RSF secretary general, was led to the residency by Pap Saine, the co-publisher of The Point Newspaper.
Speaking to the press shortly after their closed-door meeting, the RSF boss stated that the purpose of the visit was to have an in-depth discussion with the President on the challenges of journalism in the country. He explained that The Gambia can give hope to lots of people after Yahya Jammeh left, saying that was really impressive.
He noted that The Gambia has won and improved in the situation of press freedom on the World Press Freedom Index every year for being ranked in the 50s out of 180 countries in the world. He added that The Gambia is a country where journalists were heroes in the past regime and suffered so much.
Mr. Christophe advanced that part of the visit to the nation was also to pay tribute to their former correspondent, the late Deyda Hydara, co-publisher of The Point Newspaper, who was assassinated.
“Among all the recommendations we made with the president was to further improve the situation of press freedom in The Gambia. We spoke about the importance and urgency of perpetrators of crimes to be tried and sentenced, especially Yahya Jammeh who has to be extradited from Equatorial Guinea,” he told reporters.
“The visit was also aimed to discuss the rights and duties of journalists and we made proposals to the President to support the efforts in the future for The Gambia to really promote the social functions of journalism, which can be absolutely key for further development on all aspects of economy and beyond,” he concluded.
Lamin Queen Jammeh, the minister of Information, thanked the delegation for the visit, while noting that the interaction with the President was fruitful as they had the chance to share significant things especially, media in The Gambia and to applaud the president for the country’s achievement on media freedom.
Mr. Sadibou Marong, the directeur du Bureau Afrique, based in Dakar, pointed out that the closed-door discussion was also aimed at the way forward for press freedom, stating that they have a very strong symbol and positive relationship with The Gambia through the late Deyda Hydara of The Point newspaper and his co-publisher, Pap Saine.
“We value journalists and journalism because they have great responsibilities around the whole globe, who always strive to keep people well informed of what’s going on in the world. We also discussed how to maintain the peace and stability amongst us,” he concluded.
Alhagie Pap Saine, the co-publisher of The Point Newspaper, thanked President Barrow and the delegation for the efforts registered while looking forward to a fruitful outcome in the strive for press freedom and the improvement of the nation.
