BambaLaye,
Thanks for the info
Below, I have corrected some of what I wrote earlier and looked at this:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Jammeh++Under+the+Microscope.%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
That Der Spiegel article talked about the high standards of African dictators and of course they compare one with another. Even as you read this one or other of them justifying himself saying, “Well, I’m not as bad as Mugabe.”
Marco Polo who wrote here had better not take the boat or Lufthansa to Banjul as he may be arrested at the airport and taken to Mile 2 for this which also made me angry, not to speak of His Excellency himself:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,470231,00.html
It is very disturbing that "Jammeh Under the Microscope." was written by Fatou and published in September 2003 by an Independent newspaper and they are still hell bent on making her a statutory example for something that she wrote in 2003. It would have been fair, if they had then issued a warrant for her arrest and not been quiet about it ( that article) as if all was perhaps forgotten and forgiven ( those who suffer don’t forget so easily and some things are not easily forgiven, but to keep quiet and then to grab here unawares? Sneaky and not very manly, if that’s the whole story.
“This led to the abduction of the editor-in-chief Abdoulie Sey in an unmarked car and held at the NIA headquarters for three days (sounds familiar?).
Yes it sounds familiar and I think that the ridicule that has been heaped on the president’s AIDS cure though subsiding might catch up with the villifiers when they set foot in the Gambia, perhaps in search of a cure for their own HIV…. Let’s be reasonable. Reasonable.
I hope that the press laws of the Gambia are legal and clear.
A free press in Africa is one of our great concerns – those of us who would like to see more Human Rights and democracy observed in the Dark Continent.
The US Embassy in Banjul is less vocal than the one in Sierra Leone, about local affairs. Perhaps there is more of a spirit of co-operation and more room/ freedom to operate in Freetown. I don’t know.
Here is what the ambassador to Sierra Leone said on the level:
http://freetown.usembassy.gov/sp011706.html
With due respect for a free press, this freedom goes with responsibility and any
”intention to commit sedition, publication of seditious words and publication of false news intended to create public fear and alarm." is a very serious charge if such a charge and if such intentions can be substantiated.
Many of us have been very worried about Fatou Jaw Manneh's detention, and less worried about the words that have caused her imprisonment. The context of all this being the spate of such detentions, harassments and assaults on the Gambian press, much of which is in cyberspace’s no-man’s-land and there's still the mystery and considerable speculation as to who killed Deyda Heydara.
Looks like the trial of Ms. Manneh – if it does proceed, will be a litmus test for press freedom in the Gambia, and perhaps the lines that can and cannot be crossed will now be established and a precedent created. I hope that she has a good lawyer.
With war, they say that Truth is the first to suffer or be sacrificed. Freedom of the press is usually the first to suffer when democracy is assaulted.
A free press is a platform for presenting constructive ideas or healthy criticism in response to which a nation can grow. A free press is also a safety valve for the ventilation of citizens’ anger or dissatisfactions, but we should all try to be responsible in what we write and even those who may hate the president could refrain from making wild or spurious statements that could be very unfair and create an atmosphere of unnecessary fear or insecurity.
Libel, sedition, even treason are frequent charges. About libel the victim/ libelled takes the journalist to Court and even if the offended person is president, he ought not use or misuse his high office and the state apparatus to arrest/ detain/ the offending journalist, with an utter disregard for” habeas corpus” and in this case, the detention of that poor lady for several days, possibly sleeping on the floor – all this to create a deterrent.? “Climate of fear “was the title of Soyinka’s Reith lectures.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2004/
Since Ms. Manneh lives in the US and the on-line paper in which the allegedly seditious articles were published is somewhere in cyberspace/ blog-space, where exactly is the jurisdiction of the court, with regard to cyberspace? Does the editor of the paper bear any responsibility?
To my understanding, Jammeh being accused of "tearing our beloved country to shreds" is surely an exaggeration – and I hope that I have the freedom to express this view – this is my view. To describe Jammeh as not “a little bundle of joy” is perhaps not too far off the mark.
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/cove.html
But to describe someone else’s loving president as ”a bundle of terror” a rather nebulous expression, could also be an exaggeration, or a faulty way of describing what I have heard described as the climate of fear that prevails among Jammeh’s critics in the Gambia.
It would be foolhardy for the journalist in question to have done the intended damage and being fully aware of the probable consequences, to then step foot in the Gambia. On the other hand, that she does not consider what she has written as seditious and it’s possible that from her point of view, ( here the context is what she’s used to reading what is usually written in democracy’s capital in Washington DC - where even Pelosi’s visit to Syria is in some peoples’ view is not seditious to the American government not to speak of her being detained and charged with SEDITION.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=What+is+sedition%3F&meta=
>
> From: "BambaLaye (Abdoulie Jallow)" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2007/04/04 on PM 11:15:33 CEST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Ämne: Re: Fw: Gambia charges U.S.-based reporter with sedition
>
> The said article mainly referred to in Fatou's case is tiltled "Jammeh
> Under the Microscope." The article was written by Fatou and published on
> September 19(??) 2003 by the Independent newspaper. This led to the
> abduction of the editor-in-chief Abdoulie Sey in an unmarked car and held
> at the NIA headquarters for three days (sounds familiar?).
>
> --
> BambaLaye
> Radio Free Gambia
> www.freegambia.net
>
> <quote who="Cornelius Edward Hamelberg">
> > Is it possible for us to do a reading and comprehension exercise on the
> > said criminally seditious article on this site, and judge the alleged
> > damage for ourselves?
> >>
> >> From: "BambaLaye (Abdoulie Jallow)" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Date: 2007/04/04 on PM 08:15:58 CEST
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Ämne: Fw: Gambia charges U.S.-based reporter with sedition
> >>
> >> Gambia charges U.S.-based reporter with sedition
> >> Wed 4 Apr 2007, 16:52 GMT
> >>
> >> BANJUL, April 4 (Reuters) - A U.S.-based journalist appeared in court
> >> on
> >> Wednesday in her native Gambia charged with sedition over online
> >> articles
> >> critical of President Yahya Jammeh.
> >>
> >> Fatou Jaw Manneh was detained a week ago at the tiny West African
> >> country's airport after she arrived to visit family.
> >>
> >> She was charged with intention to commit sedition, publication of
> >> seditious words and publication of false news intended to create public
> >> fear and alarm.
> >>
> >> The court prosecutor accused Manneh of publishing an October 2005
> >> article
> >> which said Jammeh was "tearing our beloved country to shreds" and also
> >> described him as "a bundle of terror".
> >>
> >> A court in Kanifing near the capital Banjul released her on bail of
> >> 25,000
> >> Gambian dalasi ($900) until April 11.
> >>
> >> Manneh, who is in her late 30s, worked on Gambia's pro-government Daily
> >> Observer newspaper in the late 1990s before going to study in the United
> >> States.
> >>
> >> Now living in Washington DC, she has written stories for opposition
> >> websites critical of Jammeh's government.
> >>
> >> Gambian authorities periodically detain journalists who criticise
> >> Jammeh,
> >> a former coup leader who said after his re-election last year he would
> >> ban
> >> any newspaper that offended him.
> >>
> >> Press freedom watchdogs have criticised Gambia's government for
> >> detaining
> >> journalists, often without charge, and demanded further investigation
> >> into
> >> the 2004 killing of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara, who was shot dead
> >> in his car.
> >>
> >> Official inquiries into the murder have so far been inconclusive.
> >>
> >> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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