Press freedom continues to elude journalists in Gambia.
Currently under fire is Mr Abdoulie John, a stringer with the US-based
Associated Press (AP) news agency. More than one month today, John who doubles
as an editor of a Gambian online news agency, JollofNews, is
still battling for his freedom.
From Dec.9, 2012 to date, the journalist had
been arrested and detained on two separate occasions by the country's
intelligence agency, NIA. Interestingly, all this while, he is yet to know his
crime, if any.
“I did nothing wrong," he says with a unique
emphasis. "It is sad to know that such things are happening in a country
that is supposed to operate democratically. This is part of harassment and
intimidation by the state to deny independent journalists to operate
freely."
John's case had been condemned by media rights activists and
concerned international bodies who called on the Gambia government to let go off the
journalist.
But, typically, when it comes to allowing the press a
bite on the cake of rights and freedoms, the Jammeh administration doesn’t
easily budge. And in this case, as a result, Journalist John is left to shuttle
almost as regularly as a commercial vehicle between his home in Serrekunda and
the NIA headquarters in Banjul.
"It is now almost a month and this is the umpteenth
time that I have been reporting and the National Intelligence Agency seems to
be embarking on a sort of fishing expedition,” the former Daily
Observer deputy editor said.
His saga started when he went on an assignment to cover
the release of eight Senegalese hostages by MFDC rebels in December. There, he
had a confrontation with a State House staff photographer at a Gambian border village of Tamba Kunda. The photographer's authoritative-style
questioning of John as to who invited him to cover the event did not go down
well with the latter who felt the former has not authority to question him. A
commotion ensued between the two.
Then, John who
claimed to be the victim is apparently adjudged the culprit. For, he was not
only denied coverage of the event by Gambia’s intelligence chief who was
present on the ground, but he was also kept in a confinement which he
interprets as arrest.
Since then, John has been under siege. Last week, he was thrown
behind bars for days for the second time in a month. In the process of trying
to link him to a crime, his house was searched and his laptop computer screened
and rescreened by state investigators.
On Monday, however, he at least heaved a sigh of relief
when he went to the NIA on what has become a routine for him. His laptop was
given back to him. And, he said, he was asked to go home; that he would be
telephoned to report whenever needed. His traveler’s passport and electronic
storage device - flash drive - however, remains with the investigators.
Although John was cautious to interpret this gesture from
the NIA to mean his troubles were over, nonetheless, he sounded upbeat that
there would be light for him at the end of the tunnel.
“One has to be optimistic,” he told me. “They searched my
house, screened my laptop and rescreened it, but did not find anything
implicating. So I am optimistic.”
Mr Baboucarr Ceesay is the vice president of the Gambia’s
media watchdog, Gambia Press Union (GPU). He accompanied Abdoulie John to the
NIA offices and shared with me his take on this latest development.
"The release of John's laptop is a move in the right
direction. In the first place, he should not have been arrested, let alone been
reporting on a daily basis up to this stage. I hope actually they would drop
the case.
"I think that is the most progressive thing to the
state authorities should do. The media should no longer be seen as an eyesore
in this country. In fact, we are partners in development. That is what all
security apparatus in this country have to understand."
Meanwhile, for now, Journalist John has been allowed to
melt into the comfort of his home with an unsettled fate and a disturbing
mental tag that any day he could be needed, perhaps behind bars again.
Of course, his saga, if records are anything to go by,
offers a glimpse into Gambia’s
media landscape. Here, the press - especially independent press - is muzzled
with every available weapon - legal, political and economic.
With an unresolved murder of a prominent journalist and
disappearance of a young journalist; violent attacks on media personnel and
media outlets; arbitrary closure of independent news media outlets; and
draconian laws governing the operations of the press, coupled with high taxes
on media, perhaps it is self-evident that Gambia, for almost the past two
decades, could not graduate from the unenviable rank of world's press
predators.
Author, Saikou Jammeh is the editor in chief of the
proscribed Daily News. With his paper
closed, he now freelances for IPS news agency.
No comments:
Post a Comment