The Commonwealth Conversation

Hugh Craft, a senior Australian diplomat and former Director of the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat, assesses the success and value of the Commonwealth

A Gambian journalist living in exile, who was forced to flee his country in July 2007 after being chased by the country?s intelligence services.

Kaye Whiteman, a writer and journalist and former Director of Information at the Commonwealth Secretariat says more needs to be done to prevent abuse of media freedoms in the Commonwealth.

A number of member countries are not measuring up to the Commonwealth principles. The regime in The Gambia, for instance, is extremely harsh with little attention paid to human rights and no freedom of expression.

The writer and journalist Kaye Whiteman has asked some provocative questions of the Commonwealth Conversation and how it will address the issue of media freedom.