Seven journalists charged, six imprisoned, two more arrested as crackdown intensifies

Reporters Without Borders today expressed its deep concern and anger over a wave of repression that has been brought to bear for the last week on Gambia’s most eminent press representatives. As two more journalists were arrested yesterday, seven others were charged with “seditious publication”, six of whom were imprisoned in Banjul’s Mile Two jail. The crackdown follows the issue of a release by the Gambia Press Union (GPU) on 12 June calling on President Yahya Jammeh to accept his government’s responsibility in the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydara, editor of The Point and the country’s leading journalist. Of the seven journalists arrested, five are officials and members of the GPU. “This unprecedented wave of arrests is a manoeuvre by the Gambian government to gag the opposition newspaper Foroyaa and above all to silence The Point, the country’s only independent daily”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “Yahya Jammeh has shown his contempt for the media for years, but rarely has his message been so clear. He is determined to stifle all critical voices for good”, the organisation said. “All the institutions to which Gambia belongs, like the Commonwealth or the Economic Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS) and governments who still have any influence over Banjul, the US administration for example, should very strongly condemn Jammeh’s practices. The charge of ‘sedition’ is absurd. No effort should be spared at the diplomatic level to get these charges dropped and secure the release of the imprisoned journalists,” it added. Seven journalists – five members of the GPU and two staff on the opposition newspaper Foroyaa –, appeared at Kanifing police court yesterday charged with “seditious publication”. Six of them were taken to Mile Two jail. They were secretary general of the GPU, Emil Touray, treasurer Pa Modou Fall, Pap Saine and Ebrima Sawaneh, respectively director and editor of the daily The Point, as well as two staff from Foroyaa, editor, Sam Sarr, and reporter Abubakar Saidykhan. Only the vice-president of the GPU, Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, mother of a young child, was released, on bail of 200,000 dalasis (about 5, 400 euros). They are all due to appear in court again on 22 June. The first group were arrested on 15 June, most of them on GPU premises, Sam Sarr at his home by agents of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) wearing plain clothes and using a vehicle registration BJL 7176F, and Abubakar Saidykhan when he tried to raise the alarm about the arrest of his colleague. Police yesterday also arrested Abba Gibba, news editor on The Point and Halifa Sallah, managing editor of Foroyaa and leader of the opposition. These two journalists have not been charged. President Jammeh went on government television GRTS, on 8 June to deny any state implication in the murder of Hydara. Journalists called his comments “provocative” and “ill-timed”. Hydara who as well as editing The Point, was correspondent in Gambia for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reporters Without Borders, was shot dead on 16 December 2004 while driving his car in an outlying suburb of the capital. Two investigations carried out by Reporters Without Borders led to serious suspicions that the security services were involved, particularly a semi-secret group of supporters of the head of state known as the “Green Boys”. Hydara, the country’s most respected journalist at the time of his murder, was outspoken and acerbic in his criticism of the government. Reporters Without Borders in a letter written in March this year, headlined “Help save The Point", to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, drew his attention to the extremely vulnerable situation of the The Point and official harassment of its editor. Read the letter Reporters Without Borders again wishes to express its particular concern for Pap Saine, who is in a poor state of health.