"If you were Gambian..."
Open letter to journalists covering the African Union (AU) summit
Dear colleagues,
Since you have been sent to Banjul to
cover the African Union (AU) summit, Reporters Without Borders suggests
that just for a few moments you put yourself in the place of a Gambian
journalist and try to imagine the suffering they endure at the hands of
the government of Yahya Jammeh.
Because if you were Gambian, like the
journalist on the privately-owned biweekly, The Independent, Lamin
Fatty, a police commando could have turned up at your home and arrested
you unceremoniously, on 12 April 2006. In defiance of every legal
procedure, you could have been questioned about the content of one of
your articles, along with the manager and editor of your newspaper, who
had already been held for two weeks, with no right to see a lawyer, in
a cell at the HQ of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) at the end
of a street leading to the presidency. Like him, you would probably not
have known that while you were in custody, on 25 May, the Gambian
justice minister, hand on heart, swore to general amazement, before the
African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, meeting just kilometres
away that “no journalist is currently in prison” in Gambia.
If you were Gambian, you could have
been rounded up in a police operation to shut down your paper, like
Madi Ceesay, chairman of the leading journalists’ union, the Gambia
Press Union (GPU), and managing director of The Independent, or Musa
Saidykhan, his editor. Like them, you could have been held for three
weeks in a cell, before being released as though nothing had happened.
Like them, you could have gone to the head offices of your newspaper,
on 28 March to find the doors locked against you and illegally guarded
by uniformed men. With no income, no newspaper and under the threat of
being sent back to the cell if you made the slightest attempt to speak
openly, like them you could have vainly called on the government to
guarantee your civil and political freedoms.
If you were Gambian, like the exiled
journalist Pa Nderry Mbai, former correspondent in Banjul of US public
radio Voice of America (VOA), you could found yourself the target of a
computer attack and hijacking of your email, designed to slander you
and to terrorise those who subscribe to your website. Like many
Gambians in exile, you could dream about returning to your country one
day, when there is an end to the fear and brutality which forced you to
flee.
If you were Gambian like Pap Saine,
managing editor of the last independent daily in Banjul, The Point, you
could have had to mourn the murder on 16 December 2004 of your
childhood friend and associate Deyda Hydara, cold-bloodedly gunned down
by unknown assailants a quarter of an hour after the party you
organised to celebrate the 13 anniversary of your newspaper. Like him,
you could have been shocked at being summoned by the NIA a few weeks
later, questioned about your newspaper’s accounts and treated as a
suspect. Like him and the Hydara family, you could have been sickened
by the sole official statement by the investigators, whose first
conclusions, six months after the murder, suggested that Deyda Hydara,
whom it termed a “provocateur”, could have been killed with your
complicity or because of some completely trumped up sexual case. Like
all those who knew Deyda Hydara, you could have been revolted by these
insinuations, while this fine journalist was regularly threatened and
was under NIA surveillance, including on the evening of his death.
If you were Gambian, like the former
BBC correspondent, Ebrima Sillah, you could have been woken in the
middle of the night on 15 August 2004, by a gang breaking the windows
of your house before setting fire to it. Like him, you could have found
out that two weeks earlier your employer received an email marked
“final warning”, advising caution in your coverage of news in Gambia.
If you were Gambian, you could, like him, have felt anger and
impotence, realising that the message was signed by the “Green Boys”, a
group of militants belonging to the presidential party, dealing in
threats and violent operations against the press and the opposition. In
the threatening message you received, they boasted about having “given
a lesson” to The Independent, whose premises and printers were torched
a few weeks before.
But you already know these stories.
Reporters Without Borders and other international organisations have
been sending them to you for years. We won’t therefore go back any
further in time, but you know that we could have filled so many pages
that you would have finished by swearing never to be a Gambian
journalist. So, while you are staying in Banjul, go to see these
people. Tell them about the solidarity of all of us towards the
appalling working conditions they suffer and their courage in the face
of them. Tell them too that you have not been fooled by the ‘Potemkin
village’-style charade being played out at Brufut where the AU summit
is being hosted. Tell them from us that we are all doing our utmost to
see that they get justice.
In another development the New York based Committee to protect journalist today issued a protest letter which was sent to the AU. Please read on...
The Committee to Protect Journalists today sent the following letter to
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Chairman of the African Union.
Le Comité pour la Protection des Journalistes a envoyé ce jour la
lettre suivante à son Excellence Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Président de l’Union
Africaine.
CPJ is a New York–based,
independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom
worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org.
(VERSIONS EN ANGLAIS ET EN FRANCAIS CI-DESSOUS)
June 30, 2006
H.E. Denis Sassou-Nguesso
Chairman of the African Union and President of the Republic of Congo
C/o the Embassy of the Republic
of Congo
4891 Colorado Avenue,
NW, Washington DC 20011
Fax: (202) 726-1860
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you as chairman of the
African Union to discuss with your fellow heads of state and government at your
summit in the Gambian capital, Banjul,
from July 1, the need to defend press freedom on the continent.
The African Union has taken initiatives in recent years to boost
democracy and respect for press freedom but many member states still resort to
draconian laws to stifle critical reporting and comment.
We specifically call upon you to take action against press freedom
abusers who have a permanent role in the African Union system.
The Gambia,
which is both host to the summit and the seat of the African Union’s
African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, has recently shut down
an independent media outlet and detained several journalists. Ethiopia, the
site of the African Union’s headquarters, has jailed at least 17
journalists as part of a widespread government crackdown in the past eight
months.
These events should be of concern to you as they undermine the
important work of the African Union in building democratic values.
This year, the Gambia
has closed The Independent newspaper, jailed several journalists without due
process, and brought criminal charges against a reporter under a repressive new
law. The December 2004 murder of veteran journalist Deyda Hydara remains unsolved,
as does a series of arson attacks on independent media outlets.
Ethiopia
has jailed journalists on antistate charges in the ongoing crackdown since
November. The journalists face the death penalty if convicted.
At the end of 2005, for the first time in recent years, two African
nations – Ethiopia and
Eritrea – were among
the top four jailers of journalists in the world, trailing only China and Cuba. CPJ research also found three
African states – Equatorial Guinea,
Libya, and Eritrea – to be among the top ten most
censored countries in the world, with Zimbabwe
and Ethiopia
not far behind. Violent attacks, censorship, threats, and intimidation against
journalists, especially using outdated criminal laws, are widespread on the
continent.
Impunity for such abuses, including the killing of journalists in
places such as the Gambia,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia, is all too common. In Libya too, the
2005 murder of journalist Dayf al-Ghazal, an online critic of the authorities,
remains unsolved. Meanwhile, an alarming spate of criminal prosecutions against
independent journalists has occurred in Algeria
and Egypt,
where just last week a leading editor and a reporter were sentenced to a year
in prison for reporting allegations of abuse of power by high-level officials.
The past year has brought worrying attacks on the press even in more democratic
countries like Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.
The African Union was created in part to promote democracy and
development in Africa, both of which depend on
the existence of free and independent media. Therefore, we call on you to speak
out on behalf of the African Union against press freedom abuses in member
states, and to encourage your Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to
investigate such abuses on the ground and make the findings public.
We urge the African Union to strengthen its internal oversight
procedures, including the African Peer Review Mechanism, a voluntary system for
evaluating adherence to democratic principles.
We also call on the leaders at the summit to condemn publicly African
Union members who perpetuate or tolerate serious press freedom abuses.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Ann Cooper
Executive Director
CC:
H.E. Alpha Oumar Konaré,
Chairman of the African Union Commission
Faith Pansy Tlakula, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression for
the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Col. Abdullahi Yusuf, Transitional Federal President of Somalia
H.E. Serge Mombouli, Republic
of Congo Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Dr. Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Dodou Bammy Jagne, Gambian Ambassador to the United States
H.E. George Achulike Obiozor, Nigerian Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Leonard Ngaithe, Kenyan Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Faida Mitifu, Ambassador of the DRC to the United States
H.E. Purificacion Angue Ondo, Ambassador of Equatorial
Guinea to the United States
H.E. Perezi K. Kamunanwire, Ugandan Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Girma Asmerom, Eritrean Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Amine Kherbi, Algerian Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Nabil Fahmy, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States
H.E. Ahmed Own, Chargé d’Affaires, Libyan mission to the United
Nations
H.E. Machivenyika Mapuranga, Ambassador of Zimbabwe
to the United States
Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International
Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Reporters Sans Frontières
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee
