By Kemo Cham
Apart from physical attacks, death threats and the various other forms of persecution individual journalists go through in countries with strong antipathy for the free press, anti-press governments have also succeeded to silence media institutions by engaging them in legal tussles, subjecting them to legal showdown with cooked up charges brought up with the ultimate aim of leaving them with very little chance of surviving. But an international non-profit making body with the goal of turning the tide against these governments has just been launched, with the goal of depriving these governments of this legal weapon. A group of eminent lawyers and media personnel last Tuesday, January 26 2010, converged in New York for the official launch of the Media Legal Defence Initiative, and in attendance was the Gambia’s very own press union president, Ndey Tapha Sosseh. She was a panelist among a host of distinguished personalities in the field, including David McCraw, head of freedom-of-information litigation for the New York Times, and anit-libel British lawyer, Mark Stephens. The often financially handicapped nature of many media institutions makes the prospect of governments having their way out in their endless effort to clamp down on the free press easier achieved, and the result is often closure, much to the disadvantage of the many oppressed population who rely on the private independent media for salvation. There is no place this is more so a common occurrence than in Africa. And, unfortunately, Gambia has of late been featuring prominently as a perfect example for such media repression references. The London-based Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI), funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the Sigrid Rausing Trust, will seek to help journalists and media outlets defend their rights. It will do so by providing financial assistance to pay for legal fees, helping to access free legal advice and taking on cases in international courts and supervisory bodies. MLDI will also work towards strengthening of the capacity of lawyers to defend the rights of the media by supporting education, networking, exchange of information and cooperation opportunities for people working in the field. Observers have described the initiative as a ‘‘good news’’ for Africa’s independent media in particular. Speaking at the launch in New York on Tuesday, GPU president, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, a living example of the level of suppression the Gambian press is under, described how journalists suffered arrests and death threats back home. She made reference to only one ‘overworked’ lawyer in the country prepared to take up media cases, saying “he has security at home because he is at risk.” This goes to highlight another largely uncharted aspect of the overall situation; that even in the presence of