Gambia arrests US-based renegade journalist

Gambia’s has detained a US-based journalist as she arrived home on holiday in connection with stories criticising President Yahyah Jammeh’s government, Reuters has reported quoting relatives and security sources.

Fatou Jaw Manneh, political commentator with the US-based opposition news website AllGambian.net and former senior reporter of the private Daily Observer, was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on her arrival at the airport in the capital Banjul, according to several sources. Her family has not heard from her since, they said.

President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh is seen in December 2006. The reason for Fatou Jaw Manneh's arrest and her place of detention are unknown, but the move was linked to a series of editorials very critical of Jammeh’s government, according to journalists.(AFP/Behrouz Mehri)

The reason for her arrest and her place of detention are unknown, but the move was linked to a series of editorials very critical of Jammeh’s government, according to local journalists.

AllGambian.net said on its website, “President Jammeh and his government must understand that the Gambia belongs to all Gambians and not one person or a group. Public servants are subjected to scrutiny at all times especially when the mode of deliverance is tainted with incompetency, arrogance, and inefficiency. To that effect we urge the Gambia government to unconditionally release Fatou Jaw Manneh and all other detained journalists.”

“We are concerned about the safety of Fatou Jaw Manneh,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on the authorities to explain the detention of Manneh or release her immediately.”

“No warrants or court appearances, a disregard for legality and a complete lack of transparency - these are the hallmarks of the NIA, the president’s iron fist,” Reporters sans Drontières (RSF) said. “Opposition to President Jammeh or the expression of dissident views has become a high-risk undertaking that can catapult anyone, especially journalists, into the lawless world of Gambia’s prisons.”

Manneh obtained political asylum in the US in late 1994, shortly after Jammeh seized power in a coup, exiled former Daily Observer editor Demba Jawo told CPJ. Unsolved arson attacks on media houses, arrests, extended secret detentions and the unsolved murder of a prominent editor have forced many journalists into exile in recent years.

Journalists protesting the murder of Deyda Hydara. Hydara, managing editor and co-owner of the independent newspaper 'The Point', as well as a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reporters without Borders (RSF), was shot in the head and chest by unidentified assailants while he drove home from his office in the capital, Banjul, late on December 16, 2004. (AllGambian.net)

In September 2003, Manneh’s editorial entitled “Jammeh under the microscope,” led to the three-day detention without charge of Editor Abdoulie Sey of the defunct private biweekly The Independent, according to CPJ. The article criticised Jammeh’s regime for alleged endemic poverty and corruption. She is a leading member of a US-based opposition group called Save The Gambia Democracy Project, according to editor Ebrima Sankareh of the online forum Thegambiaecho.com.

RSF also reiterated its call for the immediate release of Daily Observer journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh, who went missing on July 7 last year. The opposition tri-weekly Foroyaa revealed in January that he was being held without trial at the police station of Fatoto, a small town 400 km east of the capital. He was arrested for an unknown reason shortly after the African Union summit that was held in Banjul on July 1-2. The independent press was accused of trying to spoil the summit and several of its journalists were arrested at the time.