H.E. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh
Chairman – Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council
and Head of State
c/o Embassy of the Republic of The Gambia
1424 K Street, NW (Suite 600)
Washington, DC 20005
Fax: (202) 785.1430
Your Excellency:
We add our voices and dismay to the world-wide outcry at the injustice done to our six Gambian colleagues convicted last week of sedition and defamation charges.
Three of the six are officers of the Gambia Press Union. They include the general secretary, Emil Touray, the vice president, Sarata Jabbi-Dibba and the treasurer, Pa Modou Faal. Also convicted are Pap Saine, publisher, and Ebrima Sawaneh, editor, of The Point newspaper, along with Sam Sarr, editor at the Foroyaa newspaper. They have all been sentenced to two years in jail and fines of US$20,000. At last report, they have already been shipped to the state central prison in Banjul.
The nature of their sedition? Criticism of Your Excellency. While we agree that there are limits to freedom of speech, including calls for violent insurrection and genocide, it is surely legitimate in any true democracy to criticize the policies and actions of elected officials, and it is a violation of democratic standards for elected officials to retaliate against that criticism with official prosecution.
We agree with Jim Boumelha of the International Federation of Journalists, who called last week’s convictions “one of the darkest days in the history of African journalism.” It is well known that the arrest of the six journalists followed the publication of a statement by the GPU denouncing comments made on national television by The Gambian head of state, President Yahya Jammeh, on the death of Gambian journalist, Deyda Hydara. The Overseas Press Club of America made exactly this point in its letter to you of July 20.
If you wish to save what is left of respect for Gambia’s democratic impulses, Your Excellency, we urge you in the strongest possible terms to make clear that you share the world’s dismay at last week’s convictions.
We ask you for the courtesy of a reply.
Respectfully yours,
Kevin McDermott
Larry Martz
Co-Chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Gambia Press Union
78 Mosque Road, Serekunda
P.O. Box 1440
Banjul
The Gambia
Tel/Fax: (011.220) 437.7020
E-mail: gpu@qanet.gm
Minister Counselor Musa Mboob
Chargé d’Affaires
Embassy of the Republic of The Gambia
1424 K Street, NW (Suite 600)
Washington, DC 20005
Fax: (202) 785.1430
Ambassador Crispin Grey-Johnson
Permanent Mission of the Republic of The Gambia
to the United Nations
800 Second Avenue, Suite 400-F
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 856.9820
H.E. Barry L. Wells
U.S. Ambassador to Gambia
Embassy of the United States of America
Kairaba Avenue, Fajara
P.M.B. 19
Banjul
The Gambia
Fax: (011.220) 439.2475
Halifa Sallah
Foroyaa Newspaper
P.O. Box 2306
Serrekunda
The Gambia
Tel: (011.220) 439.3177
The Point Newspaper
2 Garba Jahumpa Road
Fajara
The Gambia
Fax: (011.220) 449.7442
Ebrima Manneh
The Daily Observer Company (Gambia) LTD.
Sait Matty Junction, Bakau
P. M. B. 131
Banjul
The Gambia
Terry Modglin
Executive Director
Youth Crime Watch of America
9200 South Dadeland Boulevard, Suite 417
Miami, FL 33156
Fax: 305-670-3805
E-mail: ycwa@ycwa.org