{"id":423040,"date":"2011-05-12T11:40:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/12\/world-press-freedom-day-a-legal-and-regulatory-perspective-better-protection-for-freedom-of-expression-in-the-age-digital-communication\/"},"modified":"2011-05-12T11:40:58","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:40:58","slug":"world-press-freedom-day-a-legal-and-regulatory-perspective-better-protection-for-freedom-of-expression-in-the-age-digital-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/world-press-freedom-day-a-legal-and-regulatory-perspective-better-protection-for-freedom-of-expression-in-the-age-digital-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"World Press Freedom Day a Legal And Regulatory Perspective – Better Protection for Freedom of Expression in the Age Digital Communication"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FOROYAA Newspaper<\/a> (Serrekunda)<\/p>\n

Musa Barrow<\/p>\n

11 May 2011<\/p>\n

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World Press Freedom was on Tuesday 3rd May commemorated by Journalists in The Gambia by participating in a symposium convened by The Gambia Press Union and funded by the United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO NATCOM). The symposium which was followed by the presentation of awards to journalists, was held at TANGO.<\/p>\n

The theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day is “21st Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers”. As from this edition Foroyaa will publish the speeches of speakers at the symposium.<\/p>\n

Win this edition we publish the speech of Almami Fanding Taal, Chief Executive Officer, Real Time Consulting, also a legal practitioner.<\/p>\n

‘As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake’. President Barack Obama<\/p>\n

As a country, we are going through some interesting times; together we are searching for inspiration, seeking guidance and yearning for leadership not in public sector of government but in the open spaces where individual is sovereign, the open spaces where civil society is transformed to an effective agent of change.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our country has not yet formed the habit of undergoing complex and meaningful examination of its foundations, its values and its institutions. For this reason, we are not in a position to dig deep within ourselves, take careful observations and focus on building humane and prosperous nation. During such trying times, it is common for us Africans to invoke and seek the wisdom of our Elders:<\/p>\n

‘In only a few years the internet has revolutionized trade, health, education, and, indeed, the very fabric of human communication and exchange. Moreover it potential is far greater than what we have seen in the relatively short time since its creation. In managing, promoting and protection its presence in our lives, we need to be no less creative than those who invented it. Clearly there is need for governance, but that does not necessarily mean that it has to be done in the traditional way, for something that is very different’. Kofi Annan<\/p>\n

Let us start this discussion by accepting that laws, regulations and institutions exist for the welfare and well being of the people and not the other way. We must expect more from our institutions and our laws.<\/p>\n

We must design our institutions to reflect our values and highest ideals. We resist the tendency to turn our tools into toys. Because in the final analysis New Media are tools with great transformative potentials but it is up us how we harness this promise into reality<\/p>\n

First, we must question whether the very notions of regulation and freedom of expression do not exist in contradiction to each other. After 1994, the definitions appeared to be rather simple – “the old regime was corrupt and ineffective” and slogans abounds as with all revolutions ‘probity’ ‘accountability’ ‘transparency’. Definitions were easy and the entire world quite uncomplicated.<\/p>\n

Then a transition to constitutional government, constructed a wonderful Constitution, an election was won and the revolutionaries became the government.<\/p>\n

Definitions, roles and tasks have been exceedingly complex since. So, how does the 1997 Constitution manage continuity and change together? What part of what we are and do is alterable, as against those elements that must remain constant? Similar questions have arisen and were answered within the context of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

In the preamble, we are challenged thus:<\/p>\n

“This constitution provides for us a fundamental Law, which affirms our commitment to freedom, justice, probity and accountability. It also affirms the principle that all power emanate from the sovereign will of the people.<\/p>\n

The fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in this Constitution, will ensure for all time respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to ethnic considerations, gender, language or religion. In acknowledging our fundamental rights, we also affirm our duties and responsibilities as citizens of this Country.<\/p>\n

This Constitution guarantees participatory democracy that reflects the undiluted choice of the people. The functions of the arms of government have been clearly defined, their independence amply secured with adequate checks and balances to ensure that they all work harmoniously together towards our common good.<\/p>\n

As we usher in the Second Republic and beyond we give ourselves and generations of Gambians yet unborn this Constitution as a beacon of hope for peace and stability in our society and the good governance of The Gambia for all time”.<\/p>\n

The most important questions thrown up by constitutional government include the use of the rule of law to perform social engineering feats; developing state and non-state institutions as part of instruments of transformation, oversight of government implementation of laws, regulations and policies, mass mobilization of funds through taxes and accountability.<\/p>\n

And the challenges that need to be addressed include: how to use the state creatively to pursue sectoral and general interests. The people in whose name the Government exist have to continuously ask tough questions. If these are the challenges of the present to the government, what then of the challenges of rights free expression in age overflowing with tools of mass communication, and our obligations? How do these fit in when there is no easy fallback to bashing the past? Should any part of the body of our laws and regulations be altered or modernised?<\/p>\n

There is an exceedingly important and humbling challenge that we have to respond to in recognising that very little of what we do is permanent. History will demonstrate that the infrastructure development and the concomitant opportunities it generates are unlikely to be a constant feature.<\/p>\n

In formulating credible alternatives, as Africans, we must ask ourselves the right questions, we must interrogate the relevant issues to us; we must not waste our intellectual firepower fighting imaginary challenges, threats or enemies instead of tackling the real problems of poverty, ignorance, wars, civil strife and underdevelopment ravishing our continent.<\/p>\n

We must ask ourselves, how is it that no African has ever won the Nobel Prize in Physics or Chemistry? Why are we constantly cheerleading for the innovativeness of others? What should we do with our inheritance from colonialism? Most our laws affecting human freedom and prosperity have their origins in colonial rule. How can frameworks and paradigms that were designed to subjugate our people be used as instruments to enlarge our individual freedoms?<\/p>\n

I do not offer any specific answers to our myriad problems rather I wish to plant the seeds of critical thinking about the state of Africa and to provoke a cooperative contest of ideas about our own responsibility for developments in the continent in the hope that Africans can and will inherit a culture of human rights.<\/p>\n

Global computer-based communications cut across territorial borders, creating a new realm of human activity and undermining the feasibility-and legitimacy-of applying laws based on geographic boundaries. While these electronic communications play havoc with geographic boundaries, a new boundary, made up of the screens and passwords that separate the virtual world from the “real world” of atoms, emerges. This new boundary defines a distinct Cyberspace that needs and can create new law and legal institutions of its own.<\/p>\n

Territorially-based law-making and law-enforcing authorities find this new environment deeply threatening. But established territorial authorities may yet learn to defer to the self-regulatory efforts of Cyberspace participants who care most deeply about this new digital trade in ideas, information, and services. Separated from doctrine tied to territorial jurisdictions, new rules will emerge, in a variety of online spaces, to govern a wide range of new phenomena that have no clear parallel in the non-virtual world. These new rules will play the role of law by defining legal personhood and property, resolving disputes, and crystallizing a collective conversation about core values.<\/p>\n

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\nWorld Press Freedom Day a Legal And Regulatory Perspective – Better Protection for Freedom of Expression in the Age Digital Communication<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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