FAJ Urges Govt to End Silence Over Whereabouts of Missing Journalist

Today: FAJ Condemns Brutal Murder of Television Journalist in Nigeria

19 October 2011

FAJ President, Omar Faruk Osman

The leadership of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), today met Gambian Justice Minister Edward Gomez to demand that his government break its silence over the whereabouts of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh who disappeared in 2006.

The FAJ President Omar Faruk Osman and his Vice President Foster Dongozi challenged the minister, who is also the government's Attorney General, to reveal where the missing journalist is following the minister's recent declaration that Chief Manneh is alive.

Minister Gomez claimed that his government is a victim of a smear campaign designed to 'tarnish its image'. He accused Manneh of "stage-managing his disappearance for mischievous reasons." He alleged that Chief Manneh left the country and the government has evidence from Interpol that the journalist went to the US but he did not specify the destination city.

Gambia Justice Minister Edward Gomez

"We challenged the minister to provide the evidence from Interpol and he promised to make it available to us during this session," said Omar Faruk Osman, FAJ President. "Until we receive and verify the alleged Interpol report, we shall maintain our demand to the Gambian government for the release of Chief Manneh."

The meeting took place in Banjul on the sidelines of the ongoing NGO Forum, which is preceding the 50th Ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR).

Members of African human rights community attended the meeting between minister Gomez and the leaders of FAJ and witnessed the exchanges during their discussions.

• FAJ Condemns Brutal Murder of Television Journalist in Nigeria

NEW YORK, October 24, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), today strongly condemned the brutal murder of Nigerian journalist, Zakariyya Isa, a reporter with the state-run Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

According to the information received by FAJ, Zakariyya Isa, was shot dead on Saturday, 22 October, around 7:30 pm in front of his house in Bulunkutu area of the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. Gunmen associated with the radical Boko Haram sect are suspected to be behind the murder of the television journalist. 

“We express our solidarity with the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) at this sad moment when they mourn the death of a fellow journalist,” said Omar Faruk Osman, FAJ President. “We send our heart-felt condolences to the NUJ, and through the union, to the family of the murdered journalist.”
The FAJ said that journalists are increasingly being targeted by violent groups in Nigeria and warned that the appalling murder of Isa is unlikely to be the last if no concrete measures are put in place to provide media with adequate protection. 

Maiduguri has been hit by a string of deadly bomb and gun attacks attributed to Boko Haram. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the killing, Boko Haram threatened in a statement in Maiduguri that was issued in September to attack media organizations, particularly some foreign media, over what it described as misrepresentation of its activities in the country.

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