The Voice Newspaper and our State House Press Secretary...

About the Voice Newspaper and our State House Press Secretary (or whatever the correct nomenclature is)... hmm! Is it to blur optics (and I mean that in a political context), given the timing of the publication and the week's coincidences? Is it malfeasances as the story stopped short of saying explicitly? Is it true? I don't know, because I don't even know what to trust in this (new) "New Gambia" anymore.

Granted, we've seen some executive gaffes lately, but let's also be honest; are our journalists and civil society groups and activists honestly doing the job of keeping the executive honest? Are they really and truly trying to "safeguard our democracy," or are they being sensational because it's trending and like Morgan Heritage says, good news nuh sell nuh paper?

See, if media agencies resort to giving biased and predetermined views against some, or for whatever it is that whets their appetite or courage to publish, thus neglecting their fundamental duty of reporting news impartially, then we have a big problem, because that's presstitution right there. But, like I said, I don't know what to trust.

What I want to draw attentions to is: it's natural for most press secretaries to storm at the start, particularly where the phenomenon is new, and because while the media is just there to keep it real, theirs is to provide advice on how to deal with that, and to maintain a positive public image; you know, avoiding negative and subversive media coverage.

After a while, knowing that honey catches more flies than vinegar, many eventually come round, build a 'sanawuyaa' or 'kal' type of rapport with the media community for a technique. That way, they could even ask for a postponement of certain embarrassing publications against the government, or convince some journalist to trade one damning story for another non-controversial but equally juicy story, or even offer hard to get exclusives, etc.

But again, about this particular case, I don't know, because I don't know what to trust in this country anymore and I'm probably not the only one.