The Gambia Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
March 14, 2012
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Chapter for The Gambia (PDF): 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7
MSI The Gambia - 2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.66
RRepressive media laws continue to hamper the independent press in The Gambia—in sharp contrast to the country’s constitution, which grants all citizens the freedom of expression and supports press freedom. The Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), the ruling party since a bloodless coup in 1994, eroded and flouted the existing principles of democracy and human rights. APRC wasted little time introducing legislation, such as Newspaper Decree 70 and 71, aimed at gagging the media.
The more recent Publication of False Information Act, which mandates heavy fines or imprisonment in The Gambia’s notorious prison system, has proven deadlier than the previous laws. Those who petition the president, seeking redress when their rights are violated, must prove their allegations in court—and if they fail to prove their cases, they face jail time. A human rights advocate was jailed recently under this law.
Libel is punishable with civil penalties as well as criminal penalties, and the accused bear the burden of proof. The libel law and the laws on sedition and false publication all carry the same minimum custodial penalty of one year in prison and/or heavy fines. In 2009, several journalists were fined or imprisoned under these three laws. Although no one faced charges of libel, sedition, or false publication in 2010, the psychological impact of threatening remarks from the president’s office has driven editors to self-censorship, and dampens free speech among citizens.
The Gambia’s extremely weak economy does not help the media’s efforts to become more sustainable financially, with most people scraping by on less than a dollar a day. Tourism is the country’s major income earner, with poor rainfall over the past years causing groundnuts and other exports to decline. The national currency, the dalasi, has depreciated seriously against major international foreign currencies over time, impacting the media and other institutions negatively. The media have not benefited from investments
that have flowed into the country in the past few years, especially in relation to advertisements—as most companies in The Gambia avoid advertising in the private media, for fear of government reprisals. Governmental departments take over the pages of private media with congratulatory messages for the president on special occasions, such as his birthday or the anniversary of the day he came to power—but the private press receive little advertising revenue from the placements.
The 2010 MSI scores showed little overall change for The Gambia compared to 2009. Again this year, the leading objective is Objective 2 (professional journalism), with a score of 1.99. Objective 4 (business management) received the lowest score of any objective, with a 1.37.
The Gambia study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, FAMEDEV, the Inter Africa Network for Women, Media, Gender, and Development, Dakar, Senegal.
