Gambia | 30.03.2007
Intelligence agents arrest journalist and opposition activist as she gets
off plane


Reporters Without Borders called today for the release of freelance
journalist and pro-democracy activist Fatou Jaw Manneh, who was arrested
by the National Intelligence Agency on 28 March on her arrival at Banjul
international airport.

“No warrants or court appearances, a disregard for legality and a complete
lack of transparency - these are the hallmarks of the NIA, the president’s
iron fist,” the press freedom organisation said. “Opposition to President
Yahya Jammeh or the expression of dissident views has become a high-risk
undertaking that can catapult anyone, especially journalists, into the
lawless world of Gambia’s prisons.”

A resident of the United States for the past 10 years, Manneh was arrested
as she disembarked from a flight from the Senegalese capital of Dakar with
the intention of visiting her family. NIA officers arrested her after her
presence was reported by a passenger. She was taken to NIA headquarters on
Marina Parade, on the Banjul seafront. She has not been charged and the
reasons for her arrest are not known.

A former reporter with the privately-owned Daily Observer, Manneh is well
known for her pro-democracy activism. She writes for several websites and
the “Save The Gambia Democracy Project,” an opposition movement.

In 2003, she wrote an article for The Independent (a daily newspaper that
has been illegally closed by the authorities) that led to its editor,
Abdoulie Sey, being illegally detained for three days. Headlined “Jammeh
Under The Microscope,” it referred to Gambia’s endemic poverty and
corruption and said Jammeh had “failed us all.”

Reporters Without Borders also reiterates its call for the immediate
release of Daily Observer journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh, who went
missing on 7 July. The opposition tri-weekly Foroyaa revealed in January
that he was being held without trial at the police station of Fatoto, a
small town 400 km east of the capital.

He was arrested for an unknown reason shortly after the African Union
summit that was held in Banjul on 1-2 July. The independent press was
accused of trying to spoil the summit and several of its journalists were
arrested at the time.



  Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press
freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria,
Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).
It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and
Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

  © Reporters Without Borders 2007

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