Daily Observer

7 results arranged by date

Fishermen rest in the Gambian city Banjul, April 19, 2017. (Reuters/Luc Gnago)

Gambia’s Daily Observer newspaper closed for two weeks

Police and officials from the Gambia Revenue Agency (GRA) on June 14, 2017, shut down the Daily Observer newspaper and forced all staff from the publication to leave the office, saying the publication owed 17 million dalasi (U.S.$371,415) in unpaid taxes, Daily Observer Managing Director Pa Modou Mbowe told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The…

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Gambian journalist, broadcast executive held without charge

Abuja, Nigeria, November 18, 2016–Gambian authorities should immediately release a journalist and the head of the state-owned broadcaster who have been held without charge or access to their families or lawyers for a week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The arrests came in the run-up to presidential elections scheduled to take place on…

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CPJ calls on the Gambia to free journalist, drop charges against him

Dear President Jammeh: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent international press freedom organization, is writing to express its concern about a Gambian journalist who has been held by the National Intelligence Agency since July 17.

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Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay. (Amadou Csay)

Gambia should disclose whereabouts of radio journalist

Abuja, Nigeria, July 9, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Gambian authorities to disclose the whereabouts, health, and legal status of Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay, a radio journalist who was last seen on July 2 with individuals reported to be Gambian state security agents. “Gambian security agents have long stoked a climate of fear for…

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Security forces guard a checkpoint in an area of Monrovia that was in quarantine for several days as part of government efforts to try to contain Ebola in Liberia. (Reuters)

In attempts to contain Ebola, Liberia censors its press

With the Ebola epidemic predicted to get worse, the Liberian government has taken action to silence news outlets critical of its handling of the health crisis which, according to Liberia’s Information Ministry, has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the country since March. Publishers have been harassed and forced to cease printing, and journalists were…

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Sidiq Asemota (The Point/Sidiq Asemota)

Gambian journalist detained on contempt of court charges

Abuja, Nigeria, July 11, 2012–A Gambian judge ordered the arrest of a journalist Tuesday on contempt of court charges, the third instance of a journalist being detained on such charges in as many weeks, according to local journalists.Police arrested Sidiq Asemota, the legal affairs correspondent of the pro-government Daily Observer, while he was on assignment at…

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Jammeh may be a Nebraska "admiral," but he was not commended by Obama. (Reuters)

Jammeh ‘award’ coverage reflects chill in Gambian press

“President Jammeh bags 4 awards,” trumpeted a September 17 headline of the Daily Observer, a pro-government newspaper in the Gambia, a West African nation whose idyllic façade as “the smiling coast of Africa” is maintained in part by President Yahyah Jammeh’s brutal repression of the independent press. 

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