We thank God that all went well with the GPU Congress on 22 March 2008. We had real apprehensions about the event, but with all the noise and hullaloo raised in certain quarters. Noteworthy among these was the way the Daily Observer under its present management allowed its pages to be used unprofessionally to advance their own agenda. It is unheralded in recent Gambian Journalism, where the scrupulous respect for objectivity and fairness in reporting has become well known hallmarks. Even where one disagrees on a point, at least one should be fair to ones readers by presenting all sides of a story and leave matters to the readers themselves to be their own best judges that are a basic rule. 

The GPU may today not be the only professional association of journalists, but it is both the oldest and most recognized. The least we can do is to desist from dragging it down if we cannot give it our support. But to make an all out attack on its leadership and allow disgruntled elements who are not even bonafide members, as it became only too apparent during the congress is neither responsible nor ethical. Any one reading the President’s report cannot but fail to see the solid achievements Madi Ceesay’s executive made during his three years tenure. Besides local and overseas training, a printing press and a cyber café were provided to the union to help make it more financially viable. Much was also done to protect press freedom and come to the aid of journalists who fell foul of the law.

But the real members of the union ,who were able to prove that their  subscriptions were not in arrears , and who made it to the voter’s list, have finally  provided that they were not  blind to reality . As shown in our full report on the elections, conducted by the IEC, they voted with their heads rather than their hearts and returned the old executive in place. Only Madi was left out and this was because he had on his own decided to step down after serving as Vice President for three years and President for another three years. It was a well applauded move and went a long way to make the elections free from any acrimony. The congress therefore ended on a note of optimisms and solidarity even though important positions of President and secretary General were not allowed   to go to certain ‘favored’ candidates of outsiders. It therefore came as a rude shock when the Observer front page report on the congress characterized what happened as a split and proceeded without any piece of information on what actually transpired at the congress, to , to list telephone numbers for those interested in forming a rival union to  contact .

Well, out of curiosity we contacted one of the numbers only to find to our great surprise that it is the cell phone number of bakery Trawalle, the one who did so much to oppose Madi’s leadership of the union, and who was allowed to broadcast his views in the pages of the Daily Observer. What mischief. We would have thought that the correct and proper thing for the paper to do was present a full report on what happen at the congress for the information of its readers. But as things were , because of BT, the  whole editorial team at observer , in spite of their sacred trust to publish in the public interest , had failed awfully to deliver thereby denying in the process a full and proper account of the congress for their readers well deserved attention.

GPU Congress –Daily Observer’s

We thank God that all went well with the GPU Congress on 22 March 2008. We had real apprehensions about the event, but with all the noise and hullaloo raised in certain quarters. Noteworthy among these was the way the Daily Observer under its present management allowed its pages to be used unprofessionally to advance their own agenda. It is unheralded in recent Gambian Journalism, where the scrupulous respect for objectivity and fairness in reporting has become well known hallmarks. Even where one disagrees on a point, at least one should be fair to ones readers by presenting all sides of a story and leave matters to the readers themselves to be their own best judges that are a basic rule. 

The GPU may today not be the only professional association of journalists, but it is both the oldest and most recognized. The least we can do is to desist from dragging it down if we cannot give it our support. But to make an all out attack on its leadership and allow disgruntled elements who are not even bonafide members, as it became only too apparent during the congress is neither responsible nor ethical. Any one reading the President’s report cannot but fail to see the solid achievements Madi Ceesay’s executive made during his three years tenure. Besides local and overseas training, a printing press and a cyber café were provided to the union to help make it more financially viable. Much was also done to protect press freedom and come to the aid of journalists who fell foul of the law.

But the real members of the union ,who were able to prove that their  subscriptions were not in arrears , and who made it to the voter’s list, have finally  provided that they were not  blind to reality . As shown in our full report on the elections, conducted by the IEC, they voted with their heads rather than their hearts and returned the old executive in place. Only Madi was left out and this was because he had on his own decided to step down after serving as Vice President for three years and President for another three years. It was a well applauded move and went a long way to make the elections free from any acrimony. The congress therefore ended on a note of optimisms and solidarity even though important positions of President and secretary General were not allowed   to go to certain ‘favored’ candidates of outsiders. It therefore came as a rude shock when the Observer front page report on the congress characterized what happened as a split and proceeded without any piece of information on what actually transpired at the congress, to , to list telephone numbers for those interested in forming a rival union to  contact .

Well, out of curiosity we contacted one of the numbers only to find to our great surprise that it is the cell phone number of bakery Trawalle, the one who did so much to oppose Madi’s leadership of the union, and who was allowed to broadcast his views in the pages of the Daily Observer. What mischief. We would have thought that the correct and proper thing for the paper to do was present a full report on what happen at the congress for the information of its readers. But as things were , because of BT, the  whole editorial team at observer , in spite of their sacred trust to publish in the public interest , had failed awfully to deliver thereby denying in the process a full and proper account of the congress for their readers well deserved attention.