Inside Mile 2 Remand Cells: Some spread their mattresses underneath the bed to have a space to sleep. The space underneath the wooden planks that serves as a bed is referred to by the prisoners as ‘dom below’. It is formally referred to as ‘down below’. Photo: © Jason Florio (used with permission)
A Living Mirror, a book on the life of Deyda Hydara by Demba Ali Jawo and Aloe Ahmed Alota (Photo: The Point)
By Modou S. Joof
President Yahya Jammeh’s hit squad, the Junglers, killed journalist Deyda Dydara, the Gambia Truth Commission heard on Monday.
An ex-member of the autocratic leader’s assassin team, Malick Jatta, said he and three other assassins fired the gunshots that killed the journalist on December 16, 2004.
Hydara was co-founder of The Point newspaper, and a correspondent of Agence France-Presse, AFP and Reporters Without Borders, RSF. He was known to be a fierce critic of Jammeh and his tyranny and had questioned his desire to prolong his stay in power. Continue reading
The Barrow government has yet to comply with the Court’s order to decriminalise anti-press freedom laws of sedition, defamation, and false news. Photo Credit: Modou S. Joof/FPI
Local journalists fear that the press freedom space is gradually shrinking and, just like the military junta did between 1994 and 1996, this signals an end to the honeymoon period for journalists. In this photo, cameras raised at President Barrow’s inauguration in February 2017 (Photo by JOOFMS/TNBES)
Without providing any evidence, President Barrow said some journalists asked him for money in exchange for favourable reports. He has also threatened to use obsolete colonial laws like sedition laws against journalists. Here (pic), Barrow hands cash to a local cultural performer upon his return to Banjul following the end of the political standoff.
Journalists and media houses in Liberia “have suffered crippling fines, arbitrary closures or long custodial sentences for publishing information deemed defamatory, according to MFWA (Photo Credit: Frontpage Africa).
[The] ECOWAS [Court] found that Gambia’s laws criminalizing speech and its treatment of four journalists during their arrest violated their rights, a statement by the Media Legal Defence Initiative said. Photo Credit: Modou S. Joof/FPI
The false publication law is broad and can also be applied to ordinary citizens.
An officer of the Police Intervention Unit, an anti-riot squad notorious for assaults on journalists and Gambian citizens, reportedly slapped Eye Africa TV’s Bubacarr Manga (pictured) on Sunday while filming a meeting organised by a group of teachers in Abuko (Photo Credit: EyeAfrica TV)
An officer of the Police Intervention Unit, an anti-riot squad notorious for assaults on journalists and Gambian citizens, reportedly slapped Eye Africa TV’s Bubacarr Manga (pictured) on Sunday while he filmed a meeting organised by a group of teachers [on a sit-down strike] in Abuko (Photo Credit: Eye Africa TV)
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