(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 August 2002, RSF called for the immediate and unconditional release of journalist Pa Ousman Darboe, who has been held since 2 August in connection with an article in the Banjul biweekly “The Independent.” The article reported that the vice-president had remarried and mentioned her late husband’s legal problems. The newspaper’s managing […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 August 2002, RSF called for the immediate and unconditional release of journalist Pa Ousman Darboe, who has been held since 2 August in connection with an article in the Banjul biweekly “The Independent.” The article reported that the vice-president had remarried and mentioned her late husband’s legal problems. The newspaper’s managing editor, Alhaji Yoro Jallow, was detained on 3 August but released the same day.
“These new arrests, coming soon after the promulgation of a law creating a National Media Commission, raise concerns about press freedom in The Gambia,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to President Yayha Jammeh. “If the facts reported by the journalist were erroneous, the vice-president had every right to demand a retraction from the newspaper, but nothing justifies the journalist’s prolonged detention. We request his immediate and unconditional release.”
According to information obtained by RSF, Darboe was arrested on 2 August by agents from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Gambia’s secret service, and is apparently still being detained. Jarrow was arrested by the NIA on 3 August, but was released after questioning. The arrests followed publication of an article reporting Vice-President Njie Saidy’s remarriage to Alpha Khan, a retired school teacher, a year after her former husband’s death.
Individuals close to Khan told Agence France-Presse that no marriage had taken place. Moreover, the vice-president apparently did not appreciate that the article noted that her late husband had been ordered by a government commission of enquiry to reimburse approximately one million CFA francs (1,525 euros; US$1,480) in travel expenses.
RSF notes that NIA agents arrested Congolese reporter Guy-Patrick Massoloka on 19 July. He was released on 1 August.
