Information Minister Dr. Ismaila Ceesay
By Buba Gagigo
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the Minister of Information, had a heated exchange with journalists during a press conference regarding the time allocated for questions on the 2024 Draft Constitution. He also refused to allow the co-founder of a fact-checking center to ask a question, asserting that he was not a journalist.
“A fact-check center is a media house, you cannot deny me from asking a question. Doctor (meaning Information Minister) cannot just deny me asking a question with that claim. If he doesn’t want me to ask a question as an individual, I will drop the mic, but I want to let him know so that a fact-checking organization globally is a media organization. You guys can take your mic, I am not gonna ask a question, but he needs to know that,” Omar Saibou Jr. replied to Dr. Ceesay before returning the mic to the Deputy Government spokesperson.
Flex Dan, former editor of Gainako Online, also expressed dissatisfaction with the limited time given to journalists. He said, “We have until 11:30am, but you are taking our questions. There are ten more minutes, and you have just taken those ten minutes from us. The Gambian people need to know. This is not an open government.”
In response, Dr. Ceesay stipulated that press conferences have rules that must be followed without exception.
“The rules are that only journalists who are registered with the GPU and a list is provided from the GPU prior to the press conference should ask a question in a press conference, otherwise what we do is to create anarchy. Everybody can walk in and say I am this, I am that. We cannot allow that in our press conferences. Is either the rules of the press conference or you don’t come to the press conference. It is only journalists who are registered with GPU and media houses, we got a list from the GPU prior to the press conference. Those are the ones who are allowed to ask questions during a press conference. Whether you are my father or my brother or my sister doesn’t matter,” he said.
Following this statement by Dr. Ceesay, Flex Dan quickly countered, stating, “There’s no list of journalists sent from the GPU; that is not true, that is false.”
Following the press conference, Kerr Fatou reached out to the Gambia Press Union (GPU) for clarification on whether a list of journalists or media houses had been provided to the Information Ministry.
“That’s not true. We are not responsible for sending invitations to media houses to any government press conference, and we have no say as to who can or cannot ask questions. The government is responsible for invitations to media houses through their information officers. The GPU plays no part in this. They have a mailing list for media houses through which they send invitations to press conferences and other events,” said Modou Joof, the Secretary General of the Gambia Press Union, in an interview with Kerr Fatou.
Regarding the press conference on the 2024 Draft Constitution, Joof confirmed that an invitation was sent to media houses on August 26 by the Information Officer at the Ministry of Information and reiterated that the Gambia Press Union has no role in it.
“The GPU has no role in it, and we do not encourage censorship of media houses at press conferences as to who can or who cannot ask questions,” the Secretary General of the Gambia Press Union, Modou Joof said.