Six prominent Gambian journalists were released on Thursday after President Yahya Jammeh pardoned them.
The six journalists—Gambian Press Union Vice President Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, Secretary-General Emil Touray, and Treasurer Pa Modou Faal; Pap Saine and Ebou Sawaneh, publisher and editor of the Point newspaper; and Sam Sarr, at right, editor of Foroyaa newspaper—were convicted on August 6 on six counts of criminal defamation and seditious publication.
They were sentenced to two years in jail and heavy fines. The papers had published a June 11 press union statement that criticized Jammeh for his remarks about the unsolved 2004 murder of former veteran journalist Deyda Hydara.
On Friday, however, Agence France-Presse quoted Jammeh as saying that the media should "desist from being seditious and remember they are accountable."
One journalist remains missing in the Gambia since he was detained by a Gambian National Intelligence Agency officer in July 2006. Former Daily Observer reporter Ebrima Manneh has not been heard from since despite repeated calls to the government to disclose his whereabouts.
"We are extremely relieved by the release of our six colleagues," said CPJ's Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "Now it is time for President Jammeh to assist in identifying the whereabouts of former Daily Observer reporter Ebrima Manneh."
“The happy ending must not be allowed to eclipse the injustice these six leading journalists suffered,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) said. “Despite being innocent, they spent a month in prison, far from their families and, in some cases, at a danger to their lives because of poor health. We hope they can now be safely reunited with their families and colleagues and that, in the wake of this pardon, the president will now loosen the vice on the Gambian media.”
Jim Boumelha, President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), ”We applaud their courage, resilience and determination in risking their freedom to uphold the principles of a free press in the Gambia. We also congratulate their union, the Gambia Press Union, for standing by them and organising a formidable global campaign for their release. The GPU makes us proud and shows the way to other African journalists' unions battling to free their journalists from prison or fighting against oppressive media laws.”
The release of the prisoners from Jeshwang and Mile Two prisons was announced on state television at 8 p.m, the press union told CPJ. The state broadcaster Gambia Radio and Television Service read a presidential statement saying they had been pardoned.
Touray, the secretary-general of the press union and a Foroyaa reporter, said after his release that the union will "engage the Gambia Government and security institutions with a view to ensuring media law reforms, improved media/security relations and to improve the status and welfare of journalists."
