(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Attorney General Pap Cheyassin Seck, RSF expressed its concern about the harassment of Baba Galleh Jallow and Alhagie Mbye, editor-in-chief and journalist, respectively, with the private bi-weekly “The Independent”. RSF asked the attorney general to give the exact motives for the harassment of the two journalists. Robert Ménard, the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Attorney General Pap Cheyassin Seck, RSF expressed its concern about the harassment of Baba Galleh Jallow and Alhagie Mbye, editor-in-chief and journalist, respectively, with the private bi-weekly “The Independent”. RSF asked the attorney general to give the exact motives for the harassment of the two journalists. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, specified that “the harassment of “The Independent” by police and the Justice Ministry, since its creation in May 1999, is an indication of the Gambian government’s reluctance to accept that an independent and critical press can exist in Gambia.”
According to information collected by RSF, Baba Galleh Jallow and Mbye were arrested on the morning of 25 July 2000 by plain clothes policemen and detained at police headquarters in Banjul. They were released in the evening after posting bail of 2,500 euros (US$2,300). The police asked them about an article published in the 21 to 23 July issue of “The Independent”. The first part of the article, titled “Hunger Strike Reported at Mile Two prison”, concerned a hunger strike which allegedly took place at the “Mile Two” prison. In the second part of the article, the journalists claimed that about twenty persons were detained, sometimes for several years, without trial. The journalists have to report to police headquarters every morning, though they have not been charged.
RSF noted that the harassment of “The Independent” started in May 1999, when the private bi-weekly was founded.The first issue was not published until 5 July because of administrative interference. A few days later, one of the newspaper’s journalists, N.B Daffeh, was arrested by the National Agency for Information (NAI, security police). On 23 July 1999, the paper was suspended by the police for a few days. Finally, on 27 December 1999, Baba Galleh Jallow, Alagy Yorro Jallow and N.B Daffeh, publication director, editor-in-chief and journalist with the paper, respectively, were arrested and detained for one day. They have been charged with “libel”.
