- Journalist reporting on refugee issues detained in the Gambia
- The Gambia: Two journalists facing prosecution for conspiracy
- TWO Gambian journalists unlawfully detained
- Gambian journalists charged with giving false information
International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is concerned about
the arrest of two journalists by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on
Monday 13 January 2014. The
publisher and managing editor of the private newspaper The Voice and Pan
African News Agency (PANA) stringer in The Gambia, Musa Sheriff and freelance
reporter Sainey Marehna were arrested in their Serekunda office and driven to
Sanyang Coastal village police station, which is about 35 kilometres away from
the capital city of Banjul.
For many years Musa Sheriff has been reporting as a journalist the
situation of refugees and asylum seekers in the Gambia and in the region. Mr.
Sheriff and his Voice
newspaper recently followed the case of five refugees who were detained by the
Gambian Department of Immigration and charged with giving false information
when they wrote a petition to the president protesting their living conditions
in the Gambia. The refugees were released after four months in detention in the
central prison of Banjul.
The journalists are charged by the police under Section 14 of the
Criminal Code for allegedly publishing false news. NIA said their arrests were
in connection with a story published by the weekly Voice newspaper
in early December reporting that 19 “green boys”, members of the youth wing of
President Yahya Jammeh’s party, defected to the opposition.
IRRI considers this arrest to be a violation of international
protections of freedom of expression. Gambia is a party to the African Charter
for Human and People’s Rights which protects freedom of expression in Article
9. In addition, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom … to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media.”
Although there is no international legal provision which explicitly
outlaws false news laws, the UN Committee on Human Rights has stated: “the
prosecution and punishment of journalists for the crime of publication of false
news merely on the ground, without more, that the news was false, [is a] clear
violation of Article 19 of the Covenant.”
Moreover, this incident forms part of a pattern of attacks on the
press which has led IRRI to observe an increasing number of Gambian journalists
seeking asylum in neighboring countries, including Senegal. For example, in
December 2004, Deyda Haidara, the editor of the independent newspaper, The Point, was shot dead in his car
by an unidentified gunman. Chief Ebrima Manneh, a journalist with the Daily Observer, was arrested
by the NIA when he attempted to republish a BBC report criticizing President
Yahya Jammeh immediately after the African Union Summit in Banjul in 2006. He
has not been seen since then.
The two journalists were released on bail on 16 January 2014 after
three days in detention, but are still facing charges and will appear before
the Banjul Court on 21 January 2014. IRRI remains concerned about the charges
facing Sheriff and his colleague and urges the government to drop the charges
against them. Source: International
Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI)
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The
Gambia: Two journalists facing prosecution for conspiracy
ARTICLE 19
17
Jan 2014
Two
Gambian journalists, Musa Sheriff, editor-in-chief and owner of The Voice, a tri-weekly private
newspaper, and Sainey Marenah, a reporter, were arrested on Monday 13 by the
Gambian security forces of the National Intelligence Agency and then released
on bail on Thursday 16 by the courts.
The
newspaper’s editorial team and other sources put these arrests down to an
article on defections from the party in power.
The
offending article, written by Marenah and published by The Voice in December 2013, stated that 19 members of President
Yahya Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) had
left the party to join the United Democratic Party (UDP), the main opposition
formation. APRC had refuted these reports and their corrections for the record
were published in The Voice on
12 December 2013.
On
15 January 2014, ARTICLE 19 got in touch by phone with a journalist at The Voice newspaper, who explained
that Sheriff and Marenah had been transferred to the Banjul police. At that
time, however, the Office of the Prosecutor affirmed that it was unaware of the
arrests or the charges made against them.
On
Thursday 16 January 2014, the two journalists were brought before Banjul’s
court of first instance. According to local sources, they are facing
prosecution for conspiracy and have been released on bail in the sum of 20,000
Dalasi, or approximately US$500. They must reappear before the judge on 21
January 2014.
“It is hard to believe that journalists would
be arrested and deprived of their freedom simply for reporting that some party
members had jumped ship,” declared Fatou Jagne Senghor, ARTICLE 19
Regional Director for West Africa, who went on to say that “such inoffensive and purely political
reporting should never be a reason for arresting journalists, in what is
clearly an abuse of the judicial system.”
This
is not the first time that journalists have suffered attacks on their freedom
of opinion and expression in The Gambia.
ARTICLE 19 strongly
condemns these arbitrary arrests that once again violate the freedom of
expression and information of both journalists.
ARTICLE 19 calls on the
Gambian authorities to cease the petty prosecution of Musa Sheriff and Sainey
Marenah and to stop harassing and intimidating the Gambian press and citizens.
Source: ARTICLE19
West Africa
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GPU
Statement on Musa Sherrif and Sainey Marenah
The Gambia Press Union is concern
over the detention of Musa Sherrif, publisher of The Voice newspaper and Sainey
Marenah, a freelance journalist, who were on Monday arrested and detained by
state security agents.
Musa Sherrif was arrested at his office by plain clothes officers. He was later taken to Sanyang Police Station where he was cautioned and charged with giving false information to a public servant.
Sainey Marenah, who was asked to report at Sanyang Police station was also cautioned and charged by the investigating officer.
The duo that is being investigated in connection with a publication on The Voice newspaper alleging the defection of nineteen ‘Green Youth’ to the opposition United Democratic Party, was denied bail by the State security agents.
One of the officers indicated that they received an executive order to investigate the story pertaining to the alleged defection of the 19 Green Youth published by The Voice newspaper.
Since The Voice newspaper has accorded the APRC space to refute the story it published on the purported defection of the “Green Youth,” it means the paper has no intention whatsoever to prejudice the ruling APRC party.
The duo was on Wednesday transferred to Banjul Police Station where they are currently held.
Based on the foregoing, we are appealing to the country’s authorities to drop the charges against the duo and allow them to carry on with their normal duties. Source: Gambia Press Union (GPU)
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TWO
Gambian journalists unlawfully detained
Journalists Musa Sheriff and Sainey M.K. Marenah have been in
detention since 13 January.
They have been charged with “giving false information to a
public officer” following an article published in the privately-owned newspaper The Voice.
They are prisoners of conscience detained solely for
peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Musa
Sheriff and Sainey M.K. Marenah were arrested on 13 January in
Serekunda and transferred to the Police Headquarters in Banjul on 15 January. They
have been charged with giving false information to a public officer, under the
controversial clauses of chapter XIII of the Criminal Code, often used to
target journalists who are exercising their freedom of expression.
The
date of the trial has not yet been communicated. Under the Gambian
Constitution, they must be brought before a court of law within 72 hours.
On
9 December 2013 Gambian newspaper The Voice published an article
reporting on the defection of youth supporters of the ruling Alliance for
Patriotic Re-Orientation and Construction (APRC) party to the opposition United
Democratic Party (UDP). The
Voice later published a rejoinder after the APRC contested the
story.
On
13 January at 8am four plain clothes police officers arrived at The Voice’s offices in Serekunda.
The
officers interrogated staff and requested copies of the 9
December article. At around midday the officers took Musa Sheriff, the
editor in chief, to the Sanyang police station.
According
to a journalist who witnessed the arrest, one of the officers stated he was a
police investigator acting under the directive of the President of the Republic
of The Gambia.
Sainey
M.K. Marenah, a freelance journalist and author of the story, was summoned to
Sanyang police station and arrested at 5pm the same day. The two
journalists have been in detention since then. Source: Amnesty International
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Gambian journalists charged with giving false information
Lagos, Nigeria, January 14, 2014--Gambian
authorities should drop the charges against two journalists who have been held
since Monday on accusations of giving false information, the Committee to
Protect Journalists said today.
State security agents arrested Musa Sheriff, a
Liberian citizen and editor of the thrice-weekly independent newspaper The Voice, and Sainey Marenah, a
freelance journalist, and charged them under the criminal code with "providing false
information to a public officer," local journalists told CPJ. Police said
they were acting on orders from President Yahya Jammeh, news reports said.
If convicted under this charge, the journalists
face five years in jail and/or a fine of 50,000 dalasi (about US$1,515),
according to news reports. They have been denied bail.
Sheriff and Marenah were arrested in connection
with a Voice story that Marenah
wrote, which was published in early December 2013 and called "19 Green
Youths Defect to UDP," according to news reports. The story discussed a claim by the
opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) that 19 youth supporters of President
Jammeh, known as "Green Youths," had defected from the ruling
political party and joined the UDP.
The ruling party dismissed the claim as baseless,
The Voice said in a subsequent
edition, according to news reports.
"The charges against Musa Sheriff and Sainey
Marenah are a reminder that the Gambian government is determined to stamp out
criticism and crush the independent press," said Peter Nkanga, CPJ's West
Africa consultant. "We call on authorities to withdraw all charges and
release the two journalists immediately." – Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
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