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| Fatou Jagne Senghore, ARTICLE 19 Regional Representative for West Africa |
“It is unacceptable that security officers stormed
into a radio station and forced it off air without any valid explanation,” said
Fatou Jagne Senghore, referring to the arbitrary shut down of Taranga FM, an
independent community radio in Gambia.
On the night of 14-15 August, 2012, Gambia’s most
dreadful security service, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) raided and
shut down the Sinchu Alhagie village-based radio station situated south-west of
the Gambian capital, Banjul.
“This act is another example of the intimidating
tactics used in the Gambia to stifle the press and violate the right to freedom
of expression,” said Fatou Jagne Senghore, ARTICLE 19 Regional Representative
for West Africa. “The arbitrary closure of Taranga FM is an undue interference
in freedom of expression by the state and will deprive the Gambian public of
their right to access information, especially in local languages.”
“We urge the Gambian authorities to permit the radio
to resume its normal programmes and return its equipment,” she added.
Taranga FM has been previously shut down between
January and August 2011. In an August 21 statement, ARTICLE 19 said it is
concerned this most recent raid comes at a time when the “Gambia is seeing
increasing violations of the right to freedom of expression.”
The director of the radio station, Mr. Ismaila
Ceesay told ARTICLE 19 that he is not clear what prompted the raid as he had
not received any notification of the problem which would have enabled him to
follow up deal with it.
However, the multinational press freedom and free
expression watchdog said raiding the station without informing the station
owners or managers of the legal basis for the closure violates the rule of law
and due process.
It referred to the International Covenant for Civil
and Political rights which requires under part one (1) of the three-part test
“that any restriction to the right to freedom of expression be carried out in
accordance to a law, not as a result of an arbitrary decision.”
On the night of 14 to 15 August 2012, around
midnight, officers of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) arrived in a
convoy of three vehicles to Taranga FM and halted the broadcast of the radio.
The Agency’s officials said they were acting upon
directives from the authorities to immediately shut down the station, according
to local media reports. The licence of the radio, names and telephone numbers
of the board members were collected by the security agents before leaving the
station.
Since its establishment in 2009, Taranga FM has been
subjected to tight control and harassment by the authorities through the NIA.
Following the shutdown of the radio station in 2011
and after it resumed operations five months later it was again asked to suspend
its daily news review broadcast in local languages (Wolof and Mandinka),
popularly known as “Xibari Besbi” (News of the Day).
Written by Modou S. Joof
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