By Mathew K Jallow

Our national homage to our brother and friend, Deida Hydara, on the fourth anniversary of his assassination by Yahya Jammeh, precluded the publication of this commentary the past week. But, I came to the conclusion that I needed to speak up against Pa Nderry’s impunity two weeks ago, after he so maliciously and hatefully attacked Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay, in the most vicious way one can imagine. Here is the genesis of that capricious attack on FJC; an attack so disgraceful, people had to wince just reading the filth Pa put out there. Two weeks ago, The Freedom Newspaper ran a breaking news story about FJC being arrested by Jammeh, and I had all intentions to write a commentary condemning Yahya Jammeh for it, but first, I had to confirm the veracity of the story as written. So I called up The Gambia Echo editor and asked him to confirm the story for me. A couple of hours later, he called me with the news that Fatou Jamhupa Ceesay was not arrested; had never been arrested, and in fact, she was out and about shopping. I called Pa to tell him his sources on the FJC story were incorrect, but he did not pick up the phone, so I left him a voice mail message to call me back, which he never did. Instead, before even the elapsed of two hours, he wrote some nasty stuff in Dr. Njombor, which I believe was about Sankareh and me, accusing us among other things, of being FJC’s griots. But that did not satisfy him. Only a few hours later, to get at Sankareh and me, because he saw us as defending FJC, he went further to call FJC some of the most vicious and hateful names one can ever imagine. I called him again and left a message asking him what got into his head, but he again did not return my call. In a way, I feel responsible for Pa calling FJC those libelous names, for had I not called the Echo editor to confirm the story, Pa might not have gone the extent he did.

Ever since The Freedom Newspaper started, Pa Nderry had chosen to go his own way, in the way he has reported the news. He has made it a habit and a custom to defame people he perceives as enemy, at different moments, and times throughout the life of his paper. I can list numerous names of individuals whom Pa has maligned and attacked maliciously over the years. From time to time, I have called Pa advising him to desist from attacking people, and to instead, focus on the issues that matter to us as a country, but apparently, he never took this piece of advice. Matter of fact, ever so often, Pa would carry lame stories and captions in his Dr. Njombor attacking different people, including myself, but we would just laugh and let it slide. But, not every thing Pa has written is a laughing matter. A lot of it is hurtful and serves no purpose except to expose Pa’s own hateful and spiteful streak. I don’t think Pa cares that he has hurt so many people; that because of his paper, innocent Gambians have lost their jobs; others’ marriages have disintegrated; families have been torn apart among other things. Pa Nderry has not helped himself or his paper; instead, he is turning people away from The Freedom Newspaper for publishing stories that never happened in the first place. He is also hurting the credibility of his paper by embellishing his stories and carrying fictional news as genuine news. Pa has every right to report the worthy news, but he has no rights, whatsoever, to fabricate them as he so often appears to do. I have written commentaries based on stories carried in Freedom Newspaper, but I am very reticent now since my commentaries were based on news I read in Freedom Newspaper, news that never happened in the first place. Now, I have to always independently confirm anything from the Freedom Newspaper that I want to base my commentaries. We are all invested in Freedom Newspaper’s success as a genuine online newspaper, but Pa must go back to the drawing board and start all over again. As it is, he has turned his Newspaper into a tabloid paper of the worst type, and there is not one single Gambian involved in the media that approves of the route Freedom Newspaper has taken.

Finally, in a recent caption under Dr. Njombor, Pa wrote of “destroying peoples’ political careers,” and he was bragging about it. If the object of Freedom Newspaper is about the destruction of peoples’ careers, then Pa Nderry is in the wrong profession all together. In his latest attack on FJC and Fatou Jaw Manneh, Pa again brought himself to the lowest he could ever get. All Gambians ought to be equally infuriated, whether it was FJC or FJM who are attacked. This kind of behavior has gone on for far too long and we in the media have simply turned the other way. Not anymore. We will not permit Gambian journalism to be reduced to such a pathetic, spiteful and hateful low. We will not allow Pa Nderry to any longer continue this destructive path that serves no purpose other than to satisfy his meanness and calculated vengeance over perceived nothing. Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay and myself are on the opposite side of the political spectrum, and I will criticize her if I need to, but I will give her the respect she deserves. I disagreed with her position entirely after reading her recent Sankareh interview, and the positions she has taken with regards to her relations with Jammeh may be wrong in my mind, but they are neither unethical nor are they criminal. But, I don’t know how the linking of FJC and FJM is of any use to us or our country. Like everyone else who has spoken, I agree that garbage ought not to have made into the pages of Freedom Newspaper or any newspaper. And contrary to what we are made to believe, Freedom Newspaper, like all the other online papers does not have an editorial board, but I think Freedom Newspaper in particular needs one to give advice as to what is permissible to publish in journalism. Besides, Pa needs an editor too to help fix the writing style, the spelling, grammar, punctuations and the formatting to bring his paper to an acceptable standard of quality. Pa recently graduated in Communications, but I would encourage him to pursue journalism because that is what he really needs. Mass Communications is not journalism; they are different fields of study. In conclusion, over a long period of time, different people have written very nasty things to the online papers, about Pa Nderry Mbai, even sending copies to him, but collectively we made the decision that sensational writing did not advance our interest as a nation, so we declined to publish them. Now we have hit the ceiling with this type of hateful, tabloid journalism and Pa needs to change course, otherwise he will make more enemies for himself than he has already made. The gutter journalism needs to stop.

Have comments? Click here