Members
say nothing warrants such a decision
The leadership of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) has
decided to boycott stakeholders’ forum in which it’s invited as a “main stakeholder”
to discuss the preliminary report that gives an overview of the findings on the
situation of the journalists and media in The Gambia.
 |
| Emil Touray |
The meeting on 1st November at the Ocean
Bay Hotel in Bakau was part of the “Journalists
and Media” component of the European Union Delegation and Gambian Government
joint Governance Programme.
The meeting was for the
stakeholders to discuss the preliminary report, prepared by a team of
consultants from Article 19 during a mission conducted in The Gambia in October
2012, and commissioned by the European Union Delegation in The Gambia.
Thought the report
indicated the achievements, strengths and the shortcomings of the GPU, the
leadership of the Union said the report is biased.
The president Emil Touray,
secretary general Gibairu Janneh, and executive director Ahmed Alota are the
ones invited to represent the GPU at the forum but none of them showed up
neither do they delegate somebody else.
In a telephone conversation with the president, Emil
Touray, to find out why the GPU is not represented at such a forum to discuss
the way forward for the media, he said: “We just decided to boycott because we
are not happy with the report.”
“We are dissatisfied with the content of the report
and we thought the appropriate thing is to boycott forum as a way of expressing
our disaffection,” he added.
