COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS

Gambia: Journalist still held despite receiving bail

New York, September 13, 2007   —    A prominent radio producer at the Gambia 
Radio and Television Services is still being held in jail despite being 
granted bail yesterday.

Producer Malick Jones was charged with communicating to an unnamed foreign 
journalist sensitive information in violation of state security, a charge 
made under the Official Secret Act. Jones, along with government Press 
Secretary Mam Sait Ceesay, who was also charged, were granted bail of 
200,000 dalasis (US$4,000) each at the Banjul Court on Wednesday. However, 
before family members could pay the bail, National Intelligence Agency 
security officers entered the courtroom and took Jones and Ceesay into 
custody, local journalists reported.

“CPJ calls for the immediate, unconditional release of Malick Jones and Mam 
Sait Ceesay,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Detaining journalists 
for doing their jobs, in this case reporting on a newsworthy political 
event, violates the basic principles of a free press.”

A court security officer said Jones and Ceesay are still under investigation 
and claimed that their release may undermine the investigation.

According to police sources and the Gambian Press Union, Jones is said to 
have leaked false information to Ceesay, claiming that the current 
government press secretary, Ebrima J. T. Kujabi, will be replaced by Alex de 
Costa, the press officer of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. 
Ceesay, who was the former editor-in-chief of The Daily Observer, then 
passed the information on to that publication. Daily Observer reporter Osman 
Darboe wrote a front-page story on September 7 titled “Director of Press 
Replaced,” stating that Costa would take over Kujabi’s position in the near 
future.

The newspaper published a correction three days later confirming that Kujabi 
is still the government spokesman. Jones was arrested on September 7 and 
Ceesay the following day, reported a police source.

The director of The Daily Observer and close associate to President Yahya 
Jammeh, Dr. Saaja Taal, was questioned by the police last Monday, according 
to journalists at The Daily Observer.

Both Jones and Ceesay are being held incommunicado at Mile Two Prison in 
Banjul.

The Gambia has been listed this year by the the Committee to Protect 
Journalists as one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom. Heavy 
censorship and attacks against the press have escalated in the Gambia since 
2004, when editor Deyda Hydara from The Point newspaper was murdered. There 
are more than 20 Gambian journalists now living in exile around the world.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to 
safeguard press freedom worldwide.  For more information, visit www.cpj.org

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