Gambia’s Regulations on Women: Your News or Ours?

This week, news sources everywhere reported concern for the Gambia’s decision to mandate female government employees to cover their hair at work. Everywhere, that is, but in the Gambia, a country with a Freedom House Freedom of the Press status of ‘Not Free’ and a 15-year jail sentence for “using the internet to spread false news or make derogatory statements, incite dissatisfaction, or instigate violence against the government or public officials”:

The Daily Observer, Gambia’s national newspaper that learned the hard way to take a pro-government stance, has yet to publish a word about Monday’s Executive Directive. In contrast, its recent reports paint a rather pro-woman portrait of President Yahya Jammeh:

Bakau women benefit from presidential benevolence

Step outside the Gambia to Freedom Newspaper, a U.S.-based Gambian online news source, and Jammeh and his wife are presented as anything but presidential:

Gambia: Dictator Yahya Jammeh Issues Executive Directive Compelling Gambian Female Workers To Dress In Veil; Fake Zeinab Jammeh Trying To Blend In!

Similarly, U.S.-based VICE News, an international news organization, offered a more neutral headline, but was not shy in sharing the many shortcomings and human rights abuses attributed to Jammeh in its ensuing exposé: 

Gambia’s President Orders Female Government Workers to Cover Their Hair

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Want to know more about place-based media bias? Read on!

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