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 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 specualtionbn 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 hoper 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 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 – even if those who may hate the president could refrain from making wild or spurious statements that could be very unfair and create an atmosphere of 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, 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 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?

 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 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 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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