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               Fallout of Gambia's Media Repression Far-Reaching

   by Nancy Palus

   DAKAR -- A journalists' group says the small West African country of
   Gambia ranks 13th worst in the world for the number of journalists who
   have fled into exile.  Journalists and press freedom experts say this
   flight of professionals who would keep a critical eye on government
   puts all citizens in danger.
   It is six years this week since the disappearance of Gambian journalist
   Chief Ebrima Manneh.  Then, as now, it was common for journalists in
   the West African country of some 1.7 million people to be harassed,
   arrested, or worse.  Just in the past two weeks at least two
   journalists in Gambia were arrested over their coverage of court
   proceedings.

   When practicing journalism becomes life-threatening, many are forced to
   flee - like Dakar-based Ebrima Sillah, who was working as a journalist
   in Gambia when he narrowly escaped an arson attack on his home in
   2004.  Another journalist, Buya Jammeh, went into hiding in June 2009,
   when he heard the authorities were searching for him during a sweep of
   media arrests.  He eventually fled to Senegal and now lives in Dakar.

   The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report this month
   saying 17 journalists have fled Gambia in the past decade, more than in
   any other West African country, though greater numbers of journalists
   have fled Rwanda, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Ethiopia.

   Tom Rhodes is East Africa consultant with the Committee to Protect
   Journalists.  He says in some cases fewer reports of abuse against
   journalists might mean simply fewer journalists.
   "You don't see that many reports [about abuses of the press] coming out
   these days about Rwanda, for example," said Rhodes.  "But that's
   because basically all the critical journalists from that country fled.
   The same thing is now happening in Ethiopia; we have only one or two
   critical voices left within the country.  The rest are either
   state-sponsored or practice self-censorship."

   Rhodes said in these conditions abusive governments go completely
   unchecked.

   "So we're getting into a very dangerous atmosphere where we're going to
   basically allow these governments to totally censor the press, and we
   won't be criticizing [these governments] simply because the critical
   press is not there anymore," Rhodes added.
   The Gambian journalists in Dakar say repression by Gambian President
   Yahya Jammeh has a profound and lasting impact: it silences people.
   "Civil society in The Gambia is a toothless bulldog," said Buya Jammeh,
   the journalist who fled to Senegal in 2009.  "The government, having
   instilled this fear in the citizenry, it has caused people to censor
   themselves [to avoid harassment or persecution].  Most of them are
   compromising their principles as civil society leaders and
   organizations."
   Gambian journalist Ebrima Sillah said that civil society, even
   opposition leaders, measure their words so carefully for fear of
   imprisonment that the truth is rarely exposed.

   Even if journalists were left to do their job properly, Sillah says, no
   one would talk, given the fear President Jammeh has instilled in the
   people.

   Journalist Buya Jammeh collaborates with colleagues in and outside
   Gambia to cover the news there.  But he laments the flight of
   journalists from his home country.

   "Unfortunately all those who are willing to do it the right way,
   without fear or favor, are the very people who end up being victims of
   harassment or persecution," Jammeh noted.  "The government doesn't want
   professional journalists who will do their job in the right manner."

   The International Federation of Journalists continues to seek answers
   on the July 6, 2006 disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, as well as
   the circumstances behind the 2004 killing of Gambian journalist Deyda
   Hydara.

   "The worst thing in this type of situation is to forget," said Gabriel
   Baglo who is the International Federation of Journalists' Dakar-based
   Africa director.  "We will not forget Chief Ebrima Manneh. Our campaign
   will continue until we achieve what we want to achieve, that is knowing
   exactly what happened to Chief Ebrima Manneh and to see light shed on
   the killing of Deyda Hydara."

   Baglo said the federation has yet to get a response after it called on
   the authorities in both Gambia and the United States in early June to
   address reports that Chief Ebrima Manneh was in the United States.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/fallout-of-gambia-media-repression-far-reaching/1351819.html