Attacks on the Press 2009: Gambia
Top Developments• Hydara murder unsolved; secrecy surrounds Manneh detention.• Domestic, international pressure prompts Jammeh to halt crackdown. Key Statistic 6: Journalists jailed for sedition after saying president’s remarks on Hydara case were insensitive. Authorities jailed six journalists after their publications said President Yahya Jammeh had been insensitive in televised remarks about the unsolved 2004 murder of prominent…
Only the Gambian president has press freedom
On July 22, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh once again went after journalists in an interview on the country’s only state-run television station. The president made a thinly veiled threat toward six independent journalists currently facing “seditious publication” and “criminal defamation” charges in the country: “So they think they can hide behind so-called press freedom and…
Gambian journalists charged with sedition
New York, June 18, 2009–A magistrate in the Gambian capital, Banjul, today charged seven journalists with sedition for criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s televised comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara, their defense lawyer said. Gambian security forces arrested an eighth journalist this morning, although no charges were immediately brought, according to the…
Seven Gambian press leaders arrested over Hydara reaction
New York, June 16, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for Gambia’s national security agency to release seven journalists it arrested on Monday. The detainees include leaders of the country’s press union and editors of newspapers that published a union press release criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s recent comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of…
Gambia has ‘no stake’ in Hydara murder
Last week, President Yahya Jammeh, at left, discussed the unsolved 2004 murder case of editor Deyda Hydara in an interview on “One on One,” a weekly program on The Gambia Radio and Television Service. The government “has for long been accused by the international community and so-called human rights organisations for the murder of Deyda Hydara,…
CPJ’s 2008 prison census: Online and in jail
Also: See capsule reports on journalists in jail as of December 1, 2008 New York, December 4, 2008–Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found…