New York, August 15, 2012--Gambian national
security agents summarily shut an independent
radio station early this morning without providing an explanation, according to
news reports. Authorities have censored Taranga FM at least twice before in retaliation
for its exclusive news review program, according to news reports.
Officers
of the Gambian National Intelligence Agency stormed Taranga
FM
studios in Sinchu Alhagie village, southwest of Banjul, the capital, and forced
it off the air, according to news reports.
The officials
also took the station's license as well as the contact information of its board
members, local journalists said. The officers told the station staff only that
they had received "directives from above," news reports said.
In January
last year,
ahead of the presidential elections, the National Intelligence Agency
ordered
the station to halt its news review program, which broadcasts news in
local languages from independent English-language newspapers,
according to news reports. In July 2011, the
government again ordered the station to drop the program, according to news
reports. The station's broadcasts had generated a lot of attention from the
mainly illiterate public.
Local
journalists told CPJ they believed the closure could be linked to the station's
live weekly talk show, which features interviews from both the ruling party,
the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, and opposition
parties.
On Sunday, the station had aired comments made by opposition leader
Omar Jallow who said President Yahya Jammeh had a worse human rights record
than his predecessor, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, whom Jammeh deposed in a 1994
coup.
In a March interview on state television, Jammeh had branded the
opposition leaders "dogs" over their decision to boycott that month's parliamentary
elections citing government intimidation, according to news reports.
"In its assault on Taranga FM, the Gambian
government has silenced an essential source of news and shown again its
disregard for citizens' right to independent information," said CPJ Africa
Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "The radio station should be allowed to
resume broadcasting immediately."
- For more data and analysis on the Gambia, visit CPJ's Gambia page here.
SOURCE: COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS
I believe "Buon inizio settimana...ciao" in Italian means "Good start of the week ... hello"
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