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IFJ Mourns Baboucarr Gaye!!
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IFJ Mourns Baboucarr Gaye!!
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALISTS
Press Release
October 30, 2007
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*IFJ Mourns the Death of Gambian Press Freedom Advocate Baboucarr Gaye*
* *
The International Federation of Journalists today mourns the death Baboucarr Gaye, a
veteran journalist and press freedom advocate in The Gambia.
Gaye was engaged in a prolonged legal fight with the government of The Gambia in relation
to the illegal closure of his radio station, Citizen FM in 1998. Despite the fact that he
was cleared from all wrong doing by the courts, Citizen FM and Citizen Newspaper remains
closed to this day.
Gaye initially worked as a broadcaster at the national radio station, Radio Gambia, and
also served as the BBC correspondent in Banjul. Later, with some friends, he established
the /Senegambia Sun/ newspaper, which was short lived. A determined journalist, Gaye was
later able to establish Citizen FM and the /Citizen/ newspaper.
“The death of Baboucarr Gaye is a grate loss to the media fraternity in the Gambia and
the West African sub- region as a whole” said Gabriel Baglo, director of the IFJ Africa
Office. “As a press freedom advocate in The Gambia, Baboucarr had been arrested on
numerous occasions by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in relation to his work with
the /Citizen/ newspaper and Citizen FM.
Citizen FM, a private radio station owned by Gaye, was first closed down by the Gambian
government in February 1998. Gaye was accused of operating a radio station without a
license and arrested by the NIA. He was taken to court by the government and upon going
to the Court of Appeal, he won his case and Citizen FM was reopened.
In October 2001, on the night of the Presidential elections in The Gambia, armed military
personnel stormed Citizen FM radio station and forcefully closed the station down under
government orders. Gaye was accused of broadcasting the election results before they were
announced by the national radio. The radio station remains closed to this day. His
newspaper, the /Citizen/, was also shut down because its offices were housed within the
premises of the radio station.
Many Gambians believed that Citizen FM was closed because the government of the day
disliked the news that the station was broadcasting in the local languages. Its press
review of the newspapers, which was quickly gaining popularity in The Gambia, was also a
cause of concern for the government.
In memory of Baboucarr Gaye and his fight for free expression, the IFJ reiterates its
call to the government of The Gambia to allow the media to operate freely and to end all
forms of persecution of journalists. “Gambian journalists are still being forced into
exile or to abandon the profession entirely, because of the repressive nature of the
government,” Baglo said.
The IFJ extends sincere condolences to Baboucarr Gaye’s family and to the entire media
community in The Gambia.
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*For more information contact the IFJ at + 221 33 842 01 43 *
/The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 114 countries worldwide/ |
Posted on Friday, November 02, 2007 (Archive on Monday, November 12, 2007)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI
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