By Lamin Njie
Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou has said the objective of the draft Criminal Code Bill is not to ‘stifle’ freedom of expression.
Gambians online have been railing against an alleged plan by the government to introduce a law that would ban people from insulting government officials. Screenshots were shared online with users suggesting people would be handed jail terms of up to one year if they are found guilty of insulting the president or a public official.
Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou clarified Friday saying the proposed new law is strictly on ‘parental insults’ when it comes to public officials.
Mr Tambadou said: “First, this is only one provision among hundreds others that are being proposed for amendment. Second, the Government is introducing two new pieces of legislation on freedom of expression: Access to Information Bill and Media Services Bill. These two bills were drafted in close consultation with Article 19 and the GPU and subjected to stakeholder validations.
“Third, as part of the government’s consultation process, we shared the draft Criminal Code Bill, which contains the Parental insults provision, with some civil society organizations in confidence because it has not yet been finalized and it is still subject to validation. It is unfortunate that this incomplete Bill was shared with the public before finalization.
“In any event, the Government proposes to proceed with the Parental insults provision for two principal reasons: first, the Supreme Court had sometime in 2018 upheld that the criminal provisions relating to sedition against the President were lawful and constitutional. This by the way is the provision relating to insulting the President or bringing into contempt or hatred against the person of the President etc. We thought that this particular provision is susceptible to abuse and decided to delete the provision notwithstanding the Supreme Court decision on it; but we also want to ensure that when the provision on sedition is removed, the exercise of the right to freedom of expression is done in a responsible manner and that Parental insults should have no place in political discourse especially with respect to those holding public office.
“By virtue of their employment, decisions by public officials affect the public on a daily basis and this exposes and makes them the most vulnerable to public reactions. So in order to prevent unwarranted abuse and intimidation of public officials, and consistent with the constitutional provision to place reasonable restrictions in the interests of public decency or morality, we proposed the offence of parental insults which in our culture is extremely offensive and may perhaps be the most extreme form of provocation. This is the genesis and context in which this law is being proposed.
“The objective is not to stifle freedom of expression, otherwise the government would not be introducing the bills mentioned above among others such as amending the Information and Communications Act to remove what I call the laws on “garuwalleh”.
“But in our local culture, it is simply wrong to insult the parents of another and it is the responsibility of all to discourage this practice especially against those holding public office for the reasons stated earlier. What has anyone’s parents got to do with their employment? Why not just stop at insulting public officials if you so choose and not their parents? The only reason one would do such a thing is to be hurtful to others because that is the natural consequence of saga ndey in our culture.
“And by the way, the proposed new law does not seek to prohibit insults against public officials, only their parents, ie, saga ndey!!! Or bai.”
