Six Gambian journalists, including three leaders of the Gambian Press Union, were sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine following their conviction on six counts of sedition and defamation.

	Worker and human rights activists protest outside the Gambian High Commission in London, part of a series of global solidarity actions organized by the International Federation of Journalists. Each demonstrator wears the name of an imprisoned Gambian journalist. Photo © Marc Valle, 2009; marcvallee.co.uk

The journalists were arrested on June 15, 2009, after re-publishing a press release by the Gambia Press Union (GPU) that criticized President Yayha Jammeh for his comments on national television about the unsolved murder of Deyda Hydara, editor of the independent newspaper The Point. Hydara, a fierce critic of Jammeh’s authoritarian government, was killed in his car by unidentified gunmen on December 16, 2004. In the June 8 interview, Jammeh said that the government investigation into Hydara's slaying had stalled and suggested that interested journalists should "ask Deyda Hydara who killed him" — a veiled hint at Hydara’s personal life. The GPU press release called Jammeh’s comments “character assassination” and demanded a renewed investigation “of fact and forensics” into Hydara’s death.

“This court decision demonstrates the lack of respect for freedom of the press and freedom of association in The Gambia,” said Omar Faruk Osman, president of the Federation of African Journalists, of which the GPU is a member. “We demand the total and immediate release of our six colleagues and respect for fundamental rights in The Gambia.”

The six convicted journalists are: GPU Secretary General Emil Touray, Vice President Sarata Jabbi Dibba, and Treasurer Pa Modou Faal; Pap Saine and Ebou Sawaneh, publisher and editor, respectively, of The Point; and Sam Sarr, editor of the opposition newspaper Foroyaa. Human rights groups are indignant that Dibba’s seven-month-old son, whom she was nursing, has reportedly been removed to child services. Concern also has been expressed over the 59-year-old Saine, who needs medical attention for a heart condition and collapsed in court during the trial.

Repression of the media has a long history in The Gambia. Within the last five years, Jammeh, who came to power in a 1994 military coup, has tightened media laws to crack down on freedom of the press. According to a statement by International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Guy Ryder, the June arrests follow a “pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions, death threats, acts of intimidation, and surveillance visits perpetrated by State Agents in what seems an effort to stifle freedom of expression and trade union rights.”