Gambia Holds First Internet Governance Forum In Post-Dictatorship Era

“Due to the restrictive nature of the former regime, the National IGF was halted after its 3rd edition,” Beran D. Gillen of the Information Technology Association of The Gambia (ITAG) said during Wednesday’s opening. Photo Credit: Lamin Kanteh/EyeAfrica TV

By Modou S. Joof

After a six year break due to the restrictive environment created by the previous regime, The Gambia National Internet Governance Forum resumed today at a local hotel in Kololi, west of the capital Banjul.

The July 4-5 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) attracted participants from various stakeholder groups to discuss issues related to internet governance with a focus on public policy issues.

Holding under the theme ‘Internet Governance in The New Gambia’, the forum is being organized to represent all key stakeholders in The Gambia through a National Steering Committee coordinated by the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure.

Restrictive 

The country’s national IGF was initiated in late 2009 following the start of the West African Internet Governance forum. Since 2010 The Gambia has hosted three national IGFs. The last was held in 2012.

“Due to the restrictive nature of the former regime, the National IGF was halted after its 3rd edition,” Beran D. Gillen of the Information Technology Association of The Gambia (ITAG) said during Wednesday’s opening.

“The reasons were lack of open access to internet resources and an enabling environment where freedom of expression was respected,” she said.

In 2013, The Gambia’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, PURA, banned companies and individual Internet Cafe operators from “offering dating services and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services as a commercially available service” to Gambians.

Speakers Session: Open Internet, Access and State of Infrastructure. Photo Credit: Lamin Kanteh/EyeAfrica TV

The restrictions, which continued with the blocking of access to popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Skype, left Gambian social media users in anger and it flared up a debate on and offline.

Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh, also ordered the shutdown of the entire internet on the eve of the country’s December 2016 presidential elections. Access resumed only 24 hours after he lost the election to the opposition.

The country’s new government promises to protect and promote greater freedoms, especially on freedom of expression and of the press. While it has not been found wanting on restricting online access since 2017, President adama Barrow’s government has been criticised for restricting free expression offline by regularly cracking down on peaceful protests.

Internet access remains a challenge

The new regimes supporters are trolls on timelines of activists on social media, especially on Facebook, and are engaged in online harassment of voices critical to the current government.

There have also been a systematic attempt by the police to silence critics in academia and opposition by way of interrogations for statements uttered on national issues.

However, the organisers of the national IGF claim that free expression and civil liberties are now respected.

“Since the coming into office of the new government in January 2017, the Gambia re-joined the community of democratic nations where freedom of expression and civil liberties are fully respected,” the organisers of the national IGF said.

Participants register for the opening day. Photo Credit: MSJoof/FPI/July 2018

They have nonetheless on Wednesday opened the forum to discuss key internet policy issues affecting users, infrastructure, e-commerce, and regulations.

Internet access remain a huge challenge for The Gambia especially on the areas of cost and infrastructure compounded by a huge rural-urban digital divide as highlighted by the Freedom on The Net Report, 2017.

But some of the laws restricting free expression online have been scrapped by the country’s Supreme Court in May 2018.