#TheGambia🇬🇲: Journalist Bakary Mankajang was detained by the police in connection with his reporting on police killings. He was released on bail and charged with interference with witness. We call on authorities to drop all charges against him. @IFJAfrica https://t.co/A9FKk5aAis
— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) September 26, 2023
Expression
Journalist detained, charged with ‘interference with witnesses’
On 20th September 2023, officers of the Anti-Crime Unit detained journalist Bakary Mankajang, owner of online media platform Mankajang Daily. Mankajang reportedly responded to a call requesting him to report to the police station in Banjulinding in western Gambia. A few days later, on 23rd September 2023, the journalist was charged with ‘interference with witnesses’ and released on bail.
The charges relate to his reporting on the killing of two police officers in Gambia on 12th September 2023, for which he travelled to Casamance, an area of Senegal, to conduct interviews in relation to the arrest of the suspect.
The detention and prosecution of Mankajang for his reporting is a chilling reminder of the country’s past under the Yahya Jammeh dictatorship and a betrayal of its democratic gains.
- Angela Quintal, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Journalists assaulted
On 31st May 2023, security guards for the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), the political party of President Adama Barrow, assaulted three journalists at the swearing-in ceremony for the mayor of Banjul. Malick D. Cham, presenter for Jamano Media and Products, an online broadcaster, and his camera operator Sanneh Samba were leaving the Banjul City Council when they noticed an NPP politician arguing with a man. When they started to film the scene, a security guard knocked the camera out of Samba’s hand, causing the lens to crack when it fell to the ground. When the journalists tried to explain they were doing their job, a second security guard grabbed Cham and punched him on the mouth, while a third guard splashed water on the broadcast presenter. A fourth security guard used an electric shock baton to hit Cham on the nose, causing it to bleed. When Cham ran from the security guards, he was chased and grabbed. He finally escaped after the intervention of bystanders. Another journalist, Pa Ousman Joof, founder and coordinator of Gambia Talents Television, was also slapped, grabbed and pushed when he attempted to film the assault on Cham by the security guards.
Cham reported the assault to the police station, but nearly three months after the incident, in August 2023, no one had been held accountable and brought to justice. NPP deputy spokesperson Seedy Njie issued an apology to Jamano Media and Gambia Talents Television in the name of the party, but this was rejected by both media outlets.
Gambia: Opposition Holds Rally Against Corruption | #PlusTVAfrica - READ MORE - https://t.co/TsNfGeK7fa pic.twitter.com/x5cUfEzNhN
— Plus TV Africa (@PlusTVAfrica) March 10, 2023
Peaceful Assembly
Opposition anti-corruption protest
Hundreds of Gambian youth gathered peacefully through Gambia’s capital Banjul on 10th March 2023. Police granted a permit to the organisers, the youth wing of opposition party United Democratic Party (UDP), to march from Jah oil in Banjul to the National Assembly to demand swift action against corruption. Petitions were handed over to the National Assembly secretariat and the office of the Attorney General.
According to the spokesperson for the UDP, this was the first authorised opposition protest in 27 years, with protest permits reportedly having been denied previously.