Plans to draft an information, media, and broadcasting bill have been revealed by Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, Minister of Information and Media Broadcasting Services.
Speaking at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo on Wednesday, his ministry’s first press conference for 2025, Dr. Ceesay described the ministry’s goals for the year, with the proposed bill taking centre stage.
“Creating what we refer to as the information media and broadcasting bill is one of our top goals. As you recall, the ministry was unbundled in 2022. The Ministry of Communications and Infrastructure was its previous name. After it was unbundled, we now have the Digital Economy, communication, and information. As a result, we must now figure out how to employ one act in light of the new dynamics. He said, “As a sector, we are working on creating our own act, which is called the Information Media and Broadcasting Act.”
Dr. Ceesay added that his ministry is dedicated to making sure the National Assembly approves the measure in 2025.
He also revealed that the ministry is completing a strategic plan to direct its operations in 2025–2029. He emphasised how important strategic planning is to assisting organisations in achieving their objectives.
Additionally, Dr. Ceesay disclosed plans to implement the first phase of the $11 million project known as the Digital Terrestrial Transition (DTT) infrastructure.
“It is a very important project that the Gambia must implement as soon as possible, so if we can’t start across the country at the same time, we can start rolling out and scale up as we go,” he said.
As the ministry gets ready to operationalise the agency once the Digital Protection and Privacy Bill is passed into law, Dr. Ceesay said the ministry is actively trying to increase public knowledge of the bill.
Along with highlighting current initiatives to counteract misinformation and deception, he disclosed that a special campaign to deal with these problems is scheduled to begin this week.
“We are starting a two-week campaign with billboards, movies, and training called Countering Misinformation and Disinformation. Additionally, we will do community engagements by sending a team upcountry for two weeks to visit each region and hold town halls where they will instruct the populace on how to combat misinformation and disinformation.
He underlined that certain people will purposefully disseminate false information to deceive the public as the elections draw near. He questioned the effectiveness of countering such damaging information, which threatens national security and social cohesiveness. He added that certain people are adept at spreading false information that is harmful to the country or its residents and serves no public purpose.
In addition to launching a campaign on that topic, we are also educating fifty journalists, editors, and fact-checkers. Additionally, they will learn about the dangers of misinformation and disinformation. The training will result in three important documents, which are not legislative in nature: an action plan against disinformation, and a code of practice against disinformation. All of us work in the media, and civil society may support, sign, and pledge not to spread false information to the public, which undermines societal cohesiveness,” he stated.
