Category Archives: Gambia

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded that Gambian authorities  immediately release Abdoulie John, a journalist who has been detained without charge in Banjul since Monday John has been harassed by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency since early December, news reports said. John, editor of the online news website Jollof News and a contributor to The Associated Press, was summoned for questioning at the headquarters of the NIA at around 2 p.m. on Monday, Lamin Jahateh, a representative of the Gambia Press Union, who was with John at the time, told CPJ. John was questioned for about three hours, he said. Emil Touray, president of the union, told CPJ … Continue reading →

The Committee to Protect Journalists today said it holds authorities in the Gambia responsible for the safety of a journalist who has received death threats following critical coverage of the government. Abubakar Saidykhan, a freelancer who contributes to several news websites, told CPJ that four unknown people on Tuesday threatened him at his Ebo Town residence in Kanifing Municipality, some seven miles (11 kilometres) from the capital Banjul. Saidykhan said he was near his compound gate with his brother when the men drove up in an unmarked vehicle with tinted windows and threatened to kill him next time they see him. One of the men called him “a very stubborn … Continue reading →

The Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) has urged Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma to deliver ‘a forceful message’ to Gambian President Yahya Jammeh during his forthcoming visit to the Gambia. In a letter co-signed by CJA President Rita Payne, CJA Vice President Chris Cobb and CJA Executive Director Pat Perkel, Mr Sharma was reminded of the deteriorating conditions that are making it difficult for news and the media in the Gambia to function properly. “Our colleagues in the Commonwealth Journalists Association report that media in The Gambia remains under sustained pressure through prosecutions for sedition and criminal libel, government closure of news agencies, intimidation and physical attacks on journalists,” the CJA … Continue reading →

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday reiterated his stance that he would never accept homosexuality in his country, after recent pressure from abroad on African states to respect gay rights. “We know what human rights are. Human beings of the same sex cannot marry or date,” Jammeh said while swearing in 15 ministers of his new government. “If you think it is human rights to destroy our culture, you are making a great mistake because if you are in the Gambia, you are in the wrong place then,” he added. In 2008, Jammeh gave an ultimatum to homosexuals to leave the country and vowed to “cut off the head” of … Continue reading →

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CJA) has condemned Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s public remarks on Thursday, in which he vilified members of the press. The following day, Jammeh won his fourth term in office as president. After casting his ballot in the presidential elections in Banjul, the capital, Jammeh told reporters, “They talk about rights, human rights, and freedom of the press, and [say that] this country is a hell for journalists. There are freedoms and responsibilities. The journalists are less than 1 percent of the population, and if anybody expects me to allow less than 1 percent of the population to destroy 99 percent of the population, you are in … Continue reading →

By Trevor Grundy GambiaThe editor of “The Voice” newspaper, Musa Sheriff, has called on the Commonwealth to send a team of investigators to Gambia to examine what he says are “repressive laws” that curtail the freedom of the media. “It is very difficult to operate a newspaper in this country,” he told me in an on-the-record interview. Radio stations are not broadcasting news. They’re only doing advertisements. The only news they broadcast is sport but they are not doing any political broadcasting because of the challenges they face from the (Jammeh) government.” Speaking only weeks before Gambia’s next General Election which most observers believe President Jammeh (photo)  is certain to … Continue reading →

By Trevor Grundy The Gambia, Africa’s smallest country and an intriguing microcosm of all the hopes and problems that impact on the world’s largest but hungriest continent, is now open to a full debate on laws that affect the freedom of the press. Speaking at a five-day media Forum and Capacity Building event convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the Management Development Institute and the Gambian Government in Banjul from 1-5 August (2011), Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Momodou Tangara told delegates: “The hosting of this Forum and Workshop in The Gambia is timely and commendable as they no doubt unleash the potential of media practitioners and enable them … Continue reading →