New York, May 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the recent passage of the National Media Commission Bill 2002, a pernicious piece of legislation that would give a state-dominated commission the right to license journalists and force reporters to reveal confidential sources. Over the past year, Gambian journalists have made successful…
Throughout the year, Gambian journalists feared that authoritarian president Yahya Jammeh and his ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) would deal harshly with journalists ahead of the October presidential elections. To the surprise of many, these fears proved misplaced. However, repression resumed soon after President Jammeh won reelection. One journalist was subsequently arrested…
PRESS FREEDOM STANDARDS DECLINED SHARPLY LAST YEAR, a problem exacerbated by hostile public statements from Gambian government officials. Independent media, already beset by painful licensing procedures and fees, now faced the real threat of closure, as the government of President Yaya Jammeh moved to shore up its power in the wake of bloody student protests…
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in THE GAMBIA. New York, April 12, 2000 — Popular Gambian journalist Omar Barrow, a news editor with the privately-owned Senegalese radio station SUD FM, which broadcasts in the Gambia, was shot dead on April 10 by a uniformed member of the Gambian army’s anti-riot unit,…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged at the recent arson attack against the editorial offices of the Banjul-based private broadcaster Radio 1 FM. While a police investigation is ongoing, sources in the Gambia told CPJ that the attack might have come in response to Radio 1 FM’s critical discussions of your government’s human-rights and other policies.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about recent press freedom violations in The Gambia, including the prosecution of one journalist on murder charges. Based on our investigation into the abuses related in this letter, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that these attacks against journalists are not isolated incidents, but part of a systematic campaign to suppress reporting on issues of legitimate public concern.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms against the recent arrest of three journalists from The Independent newspaper.
On August 2, 1999, Gambian security officials released three journalists of The Independentnewspaper from detention at National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters in Banul. Baba Galleh Jallow, Yorrow Jallow, and Lamin Daffeh were told to report at NIA headquarters again on August 3 with all the necessary documents pertaining to the registration of the newspaper. The…
For some delegates, just getting to the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) regional conference in Dakar, Senegal, was an impressive achievement. While his colleagues used more conventional modes of transportation, Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) president Frank Kposowa navigated his way out of the country by night in a hired motorized dugout canoe. The…