Seven journalists rearrested in the Gambia

We issued the following statement in response to reports that the Gambia’s High Court jailed six journalists today who were charged with sedition and criminal defamation. One of the seven journalists, a mother of a young child, was rearrested but then freed on bail…

“We strongly condemn this unprecedented harassment of these seven independent journalists in The Gambia,” said CPJ’s Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “The charges against these journalists represent a government ploy to wipe out the last vestiges of the private press in the country and the courts should reverse this decision and release the journalists immediately.”