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Gambia News : Press freedom, a challenge in Gambia, says US Ambassador
The United States Ambassador to the Gambia, Barry L. Wells, has said
his country has enjoyed a good relationship with The Gambia for a
number of years and the elections held most recently are deemed to be
free and fair by international election observers.
In an interview with PANA Thursday, Wells said The Gambia was
indeed a democratic country, adding that human rights reports, Amnesty
International and others had commented on some of the challenges that
remain in The Gambia, which include press freedom. The envoy said the
message had been consistent with The Gambian government to value
adherence to human rights and unresolved issues to be investigated to
clear any one, including the government, of any involvement.
He
underscored the point that democracy was a challenging institution in
many wa ys to manage. “In our own country, we are always looking to see
how we can improve; how we can ensure that the rule of law continues;
those peoples’ rights are respected and, I think during times of
distress, whether external or domestic, one has to be always vigilant
to ensure that domestic rule and democratic process are used to address
those issues,” he noted.
Wells said US had a very similar view
and commitment with the Gambia, especially on issues such as human
rights and democracy, education, public health, and agriculture. On the
election of Barack Obama as the US President, Wells pointed out that
many of his generation believed that they might not see the election of
an African-American as the President of the US in their life time. In
many ways, he said, Obama's election represented the tremendous
progress the US had achieved over the years in terms of social harmony.
On
government/press relation, Wells said, in the last two years, there had
been a number of programmes his Embassy had supported in terms of
training, in conjunction with the British High Commission, where
journalists were involved. According to him, such a relationship is
important because the government has a responsibility to ensure that
the people are informed about its activities in away that is credible,
noting that as long as one has access to information, there is no room
for misinterpretation.
He said the training programmes were
geared towards helping the press to underst and the government and for
the government to understand the value of the press. These are
relationships worthy of cultivating.
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(Posted on March 11, 2009, 8:11 PM david riddington)
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