These risks include: an explosion in the production and distribution of child pornography online, resulting sexual abuse of children to make pornography circulated online, sexual predators using chat rooms and messaging to contact and ‘groom’ children for sexual abuse, often with tragic consequences. Children being encouraged to post online personal details, photos and videos of themselves, exposing children and young people to abusive and damaging materials online, whether legal or illegal.

Children and young people are especially at risk as leading users of all kinds of online and interactive media- internet, chat rooms, news groups, web cams, mobile phones, and online and offline gaming.

According to CPA National Co-ordinator, Mr. Njundu Drammeh, some governments, law enforcement agencies and IT companies, are acting to protect children online. While such efforts are commendable, much more can be done to protect children.He stressed that The IT industry and governments around the world need to act now to ensure children and young people enjoy the benefits of new information technologies without risk of harm. The IT need to collaborate at home and abroad on standards, protocols and working tools to help parents, teachers and children to stay safe online. The IT companies, he said, also need to fund wide-ranging public education and awareness campaigns, in co-operation with government and community organisations.

Governments, he added, need to adopt policies to ensure the IT industry makes it products and services safe for children and young people. Law enforcement agencies and judiciary need to co-operate internationally to stop the exploitation and abuse of children through new information technologies, and to ensure proper care and protection for children harmed by such abuse.

Mr Drammeh was charged for giving false information to a public officer contrary to section 114 (a) of the criminal code, Cap 10 Volume III, laws of The Gambia 1990.

According to the particulars of the offence, the accused Abdoulie Moro Drammeh on or about the 13thAugust 2008 at State House in the city of Banjul gave information by writing to H.E the President of the Republic that his service with the Department of State for Local Government and Lands (DOSLG&L) was terminated because of his support for the APRC party which at the time of giving such information knew such information to be false or did not believe it to be true. He denied the charge.

Meanwhile he was granted court bail in the sum of D25, 000 with a Gambian surety who must meet the bail conditions.

The accused was being represented by Lawyer Lamin Jobarteh.

The case was adjourned to 20thOctober 2008.

The Banjul Magistrates’ Court yesterday issued a subpoena for witnesses in the ongoing trial involving an NIA officer Abdou Aziz Dampha who is standing trial on a charge of giving false information to appear in court, although the names of those witnesses were not mentioned in court.

According to the charge sheet, in the month of July 2008, Aziz Dampha unlawfully gave written false information to the authorities that there was political problem in Lower River Region allegedly created by the Governor of the region, Momodou Soma Jobe, knowing it to be false or untrue, a charge he denied.

When the case was called yesterday, police prosecutor, Cadet Inspector Keita told the court that the prosecution was applying for an adjournment on the grounds that the prosecution witnesses are yet to be available in court. He adduced that the witnesses are engaged on official duties.

He stated that the prosecution is applying for the subpoena for the expected witnesses to appear before the court on the next adjourned date.

Meanwhile the application was granted by the presiding Magistrate, Edrisa F. Mbai to serve the witnesses in their various offices.

At that juncture the case was adjourned till 1st October 2008.   

Information reaching Entertainment has revealed that on September 3rd, 2008 a new Radio Station has been opened in Sinchu Athagie to serve the surrounding community. The name of the radio is Teranger Community Radio Station.

In a chat with Entertainment, The manager of the radio station, Mr John Mendy, said that the new radio station has started operating at the beginning of September, 2008. He added that the radio opens every day from 8 to 11pm. According to him, programmes like education, entertainment and information are issues run in the radio. He noted that, transmission of coverage is supplied within the greater Banjul area and the frequency of the radio is 97.5.

Touching to his experience as a radio manager, John Mendy, alias ‘pacco’, was educated in The Gambia and later travelled to Morocco and Senegal where he studied radio broadcasting. In Senegal, John worked with RTS, Citizen FM, Radio Piggin and Radio Dunia respectively. The Manager finally called on sponsors from the Government, NGO’s and philanthropists to support his new radio station.

The Honorable Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Information Technology, Mrs. Fatim Badjie Janneh, has motivated the young and aspiring journalists in the country thanks to her attendance at the first anniversary celebration of the Young Journalists Association on Tuesday.

The presence of the Honorable Secretary of State and her deputy Permanent Secretary Mr.Abdou Karim Sonko speaks volumes of the commitment, care and love she has for the young people of this country. She could have just send in a representative as others normally do but for Madam Badjie the wellbeing of young people especially those who fall directly under her sector means a lot. Reach out and offer community services to your people, attitude is every thing and we need a positive change but depends on us. Help aspiring journalists to understand the profession and offer recommendation letters for employment, be professional ready and timely. Those were the inspirational words of the young and talented Secretary of Sate Fatim Badjie.

As the chief guest of honor at the occasion. Secretary of State Badjie implored young journalists to always read and listen to news and invest in cameras and recorders. “Be neutral and always keep the position just to inform but not take sides or allow your view to take over, let the readers decide,” she said. She also encouraged the Young Journalists Association to extend their membership to youngsters in the radio, TV and other media. SOS Badjie applauded the initiation of the Young Journalists Association and encouraged them to work hard while assuring them of her full support noting that as the real young practicing journalists they deserve support.

The theme for the celebration was “The Role of Journalists in National Development”. The relevance of the theme cannot be over emphasized as its will no doubt remind journalists of their contribution to the development of the country and also educate the general public that journalists are partners in development.

Appreciation: YJAG would like to thank the following for their support during the course of the past twelve months and to their anniversary. They include SOS Mrs. Fatim Badjie Janneh Chief Guest of Honor, DPS Abdou Karim Sonko, Gamcel, Taiwanese Embassy, Mr. Pap Saine and NusratSeniorSchool. Special thanks also goes to the following for gracing and participating in the anniversary Mr. Halifa Sallah, Mr. Suwaibou Conateh, Mrs. Amie Bojang Sussoho, Pa Modou Fall, press clubs and all others.

It is with great sadness therefore that we view situations where access to information is deliberately shut down and the public unfairly deprived of it. If information is to benefit the people we should keep all our schools and libraries open. Radio stations should be allowed to operate and certainly the press, being the most immediate and popular source of information, should never be muffled, suppressed or in any way hampered without very good and clear justification. Reasons or decisions for closures and the like should be made known to the public as the end consumers of information and, above all, must be fair and unimpeachable.

In our case, official information is made available to the public but given from one perspective only, namely the governments perspective. From what seems to be the current government policy on the dissemination of official information, only a select category of papers, with potential government leanings perhaps, are allowed official information and invited to the majority of official events and forums. Except for carrying press releases the private media is habitually left out of actual official functions for reasons unknown. This is unfortunate because citizens are in effect deprived of getting all the angles to an issue and allowed to draw their own conclusions from them. In the present situation there seems to be only one angle and one point of view. Therefore it can be concluded that what the public is subjected to is indoctrination where the state fails to recognise, and effectively holds sway over, the rights and freedoms of the individual citizen to balanced information.

Finally, it is not clear why the private media is not allowed to state activities and functions and we would like to know. We therefore appeal to His Excellency the president, as the country’s top citizen, to look into these complaints and help resolve this patent discrimination against the private press in The Gambia. In this regard, the president can rest assured of our continued goodwill and professionalism which has been amply demonstrated at the AU summit, at all the July 22ndand similar celebrations and in our regular acknowledgment of all the efforts of government that deserve unreserved commendation.

We regularly inform the public about the work and development projects of the government in the country. Unfortunately we do not always have access to the necessary information even to do this.

It is also our duty to inform the public of what is going wrong and for that we honestly have no apology as that is what our profession requires.

Everything being equal, and all protocols observed, we wish to invite the president once more on behalf of the entire media family, to consider our appeal for greater partnership between government and the private press in the interests of the people and our national development. Long live democracy! Long live press freedom! Long live The Gambia!

Information reaching this paper has it that Mr. Momodou O. Njie, the former Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) at the Department for Forestry and the Environment, is now the DPS at the Department of State for Energy.

The paper has learned through reliable sources that Mr. Njie was appointed to this new post on the 4thof August 2008.

It will be recalled that DPS Njie was recently tried for impersonation and giving false information. He was however acquitted and discharged by the courts following a protracted trial.

The trial of Lamin BT Sanyang and Abdoulie Baldeh, former lecturers at GambiaCollege, opened on Monday before Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrates Court.

The duo is standing trial for allegedly giving false information to the Office of the President, that the Principal of the college, Alieu Badara Senghorr, and Ms Isatou Ndow, Head of School of Education, committed malpractices and unlawfully terminated their services with the said college.

In her testimony PW1, Ms Isatou Ndow, told the court that she is a civil servant working with GambiaCollege and that she headed the School of Education at the college. She said that as the head of School of Education, she co-ordinated the activities and programmes of the said department at the college. She added that all the teacher training such as Primary Teachers Certificate, High Teacher Certificate and the Early year training programme are been co-ordinated by the school of Education. She identified the accused persons as being former lecturers at Gambia College School of Education, adding that Mr Sanyang taught English while Mr Baldeh taught Science.

Further testifying, Ms Ndow told the court that she was appointed Head of School of Education at GambiaCollege in March 2005. She stated that when she took over as the Head of School of Education, she found that the 1staccused, Mr. Sanyang, was having problem with HTC students and that he had refused to teach for sometime. She revealed that the students wrote a petition letter complaining and she called for the accused so as to talk the matter over with him, noting that the accused subsequently pledged to resume teaching but failed to. Consequently, she went on, she wrote to the Principal recommending that action be taken to address the situation as the students were still upset. The Principal, she adduced, thereafter wrote to the accused but he still refused to teach, thus necessitating the stoppage of his teaching allowance. She said Mr. Sanyang persisted in the refusal to teach and subsequently his service was terminated with GambiaCollege.

The case was at that juncture adjourned to 27thAugust 2008.

Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court presided over the case.[if supportFields]>tc "Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court presided over the case."

The duo were charged with giving false information to public servant contrary to section 114(a) of the criminal code cap 10 volume III laws of The Gambia 1990.[if supportFields]>tc "The duo were charged with giving false information to public servant contrary to section 114(a) of the criminal code cap 10 volume III laws of The Gambia 1990."

Specifically, they are both alleged to have on 6thMay 2008 falsely informed the Office of the President that both Dr Alieu Badara Senghor, the principal of Gambia College and Ms Isatou Ndow, Head of the School of Education, committed malpractices and unlawfully terminated their services from the said college.[if supportFields]>tc "Specifically, they are both alleged to have on 6th May 2008 falsely informed the Office of the President that both Dr Alieu Badara Senghor, the principal of Gambia College and Ms Isatou Ndow, Head of the School of Education, committed malpractices and unlawfully terminated their services from the said college."

Both accused persons vehemently denied the charge, and were then each granted court bail in the sum of D50,000 with one Gambian each as a surety.[if supportFields]>tc "Both accused persons vehemently denied the charge, and were then each granted court bail in the sum of D50,000 with one Gambian each as a surety."

The case was adjourned until 18thAugust 2008.[if supportFields]>tc "The case was adjourned until 18th August 2008."

2 Gambia College Lecturers in trouble over false information[if supportFields]>tc "2 Gambia College Lecturers in trouble over false information"

By Modou Sanyang

Two former GambiaCollege lecturers Lamin BT Sanyang and Abdoulie Baldeh were last Friday arraigned on a charge of giving false information to the Office of the President.[if supportFields]>tc "Two former Gambia College lecturers Lamin BT Sanyang and Abdoulie Baldeh were last Friday arraigned on a charge of giving false information to the Office of the President."

Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court presided over the case.[if supportFields]>tc "Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court presided over the case."

The duo were charged with giving false information to public servant contrary to section 114(a) of the criminal code cap 10 volume III laws of The Gambia 1990.[if supportFields]>tc "The duo were charged with giving false information to public servant contrary to section 114(a) of the criminal code cap 10 volume III laws of The Gambia 1990."

Specifically, they are both alleged to have on 6thMay 2008 falsely informed the Office of the President that both Dr Alieu Badara Senghor, the principal of Gambia College and Ms Isatou Ndow, Head of the School of Education, committed malpractices and unlawfully terminated their services from the said college.[if supportFields]>tc "Specifically, they are both alleged to have on 6th May 2008 falsely informed the Office of the President that both Dr Alieu Badara Senghor, the principal of Gambia College and Ms Isatou Ndow, Head of the School of Education, committed malpractices and unlawfully terminated their services from the said college."

Both accused persons vehemently denied the charge, and were then each granted court bail in the sum of D50,000 with one Gambian each as a surety.[if supportFields]>tc "Both accused persons vehemently denied the charge, and were then each granted court bail in the sum of D50,000 with one Gambian each as a surety."

The case was adjourned until 18thAugust 2008.[if supportFields]>tc "The case was adjourned until 18th August 2008."