Accra – The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Network of African Freedom of Expression Organizations (NAFEO) has launched a campaign for an end to violent attacks on media freedoms and freedom of expression generally in the Gambia by the government of President Yahya Jammeh. The campaign was launched in the Ghanaian capital on May 21.
The campaign also demands the release of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a journalist arrested without charge or trial by the political police, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), since July 2006 but about whose whereabouts the government and its security deny knowledge.
The campaign plans to target African leaders, African and international human rights organizations, the UN human rights agencies, governments that have relations with The Gambia, to put pressure on the government of President Jammeh to end his violent repression of free expression.
As part of the campaign a dossier of press freedom violations by the government since President Jammeh came to power in 1994 has been published and is being distributed as documentary evidence of the violations of free expression.
The 63-page booklet catalogues arrests, detentions and repressive media laws. It also includes record of media houses that have been closed down, journalists forced into exile, and media houses attacked by arson. It also includes the uninvestigated murder of prominent editor Deyda Hydara in 2005.
The campaign aims at exposing human rights violations in The Gambia, particularly freedom of expression and media rights, which are little known to Africans and the international community.
The MFWA will also send a formal presentation of the campaign to the African Union Chairman, Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor, to intervene and demand President Jammeh to free Chief Manneh, and respect freedom of expression.
Issued by the MFWA, Accra May 23, 2007.The MFWA is a regional independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Accra. It was founded in 1997 to defend and promote the rights and freedom of the media and all forms of expression.
Source: IFEX
