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Eight journalists arrested in Gambia
One, the mother of a six-month-old baby was granted bail but was unable to raise the funds and remains behind bars. The GPU is also calling for a renewed investigation into the murder. The GPU ’s President, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, contacted this site to report that seven journalists were arrested by security agents on Monday. Charges were lodged yesterday, Thursday 19 June, just before the government would have been constitutionally obligated to release them. An eighth journalist, Abba Gibba, an editor with The Point, was also arrested this morning. All are due to appear in court again on Monday when it’s understood a bail application will be filed. The GPU says security forces arrested Gibba after questioning staff at The Point about why the paper was still publishing despite the detentions of senior employees earlier in the week. Security forces are holding Foroyaa’s managing editor Sam Saar, assistant editor, Emil Touray, and reporter Abubakr Saidy Kahn, along with The Point’s managing editor Pap Saine, news editor Ebrima Sawaneh, and reporters Jabbi-Dibba and Pa Modou Faal. The Committee to Protect Journlalists (CPJ) has come out in support of the journalists saying the detention is ‘an abuse of power’. According to the CPJ, Jammeh appeared on the state-run Gambia Radio and Television Service on 8 June 8 saying that the government investigation into Hydara’s death had stalled. Hydara, one of the nation’s leading editors, was killed by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of Banjul in December 2004. In the 8 June state television interview, Jammeh denied government involvement in Hydara’s death. One of those charged and currently being held, Point Managing Editor Pap Saine, suffers from a heart condition and was planning to go to Dakar, Senegal, for medical treatment prior to the arrest. The CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon was in Gambia recently and says he knows some of those who have been arrested. “We’re deeply anguished by the arrests of these journalists. President Jammeh is acting in a petty and vindictive manner and should be held personally accountable for his egregious abuse of power,” he said. The CPJ says Gambia has become one of the worst nations in the region regarding press freedom issues.
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