Attorney General Jallow Addresses media fellow graduates
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Gambia, Dawda Jallow has tasked advocates and media fellowgraduates from the Center for Research and Policy Development (CRPD) as they just concluded an intensive six (6) weeks fellowship program in capacity building to improve their reporting skills on public interest matters.
He further advised the graduates that they have to be objective in all matters they are advocating for and to work hard through research, consultation, and engaging the stakeholders with an open mind.
Attorney General Jallow was speaking at the SDKJ International Conference Center in Bijilo at the graduation ceremony staged by the Center for Research and Policy Development (CRPD) in collaboration with the Freedom House with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Promoting Rights and Justice in the Gambia Activity (PRJ) for thirty Young advocates and media fellows who were certifiedafter emerging from the CRPD’s pilot advocacy and media trainings for the past months.
He said that such a capacity building initiative was timely and commendable, that to be an effective advocate or activist or even a media person, the graduates need certain level of capacity, and that by now, they the graduates would have been exposed to the reality that governments are essentially, bureaucracies and that they are large-scale organizations with defined rules and hierarchical structures.
In that regards, he said the task of citizen participation is to ensure that bureaucracies work for the constituencies they were meant to serve. He added that as advocates, activists, and media persons, they have chosen to lead that process of shaping public opinions and mobilizing citizens around a given cause with the view to influence decisions, mainly government decisions, in a particular way they believe represents the best interest of the citizens.
“This is a huge responsibility that must be discharged with outmost sincerity to the nation,” “Do not be a lazy advocate or activist who will just sit in his or her comfort zone to criticize without any knowledge of the issues, follow, copy and paste the work of others without independent verification. Be as independent and impartial as you possible can. Manage your personal biases effectively and not allow yourself to be used by any subjective interest group,” AG Jallow advised.
“Avoid prejudices and stereotypes, as they affect your objectivity, and impartiality, because you allowed yourself to develop certain mindset and conclusion before the facts. Be steadfast, but also be prepared to reach consensus and a compromise at some stage,” Justice Minister Jallow concluded.
