In June 2009, myself and six other journalists were arrested by personnel of the National Intelligence Agency who kept us in incommunicado detention for three days before we were arraigned before a magistrate's court in Kanifing, approximately 12 kilometres from the capital, Banjul. We were arrested after the Gambian leader, President Yahya Jammeh, ordered state security agents to arrest and prosecute us in retaliation for the Gambia Press Union issuing a statement criticising the president's comments on murdered Gambian editor, whom he had accused of being a womaniser.
We were remanded for an additional four days by the magistrate’s court at the remand wing of the Central Prison which is located approximately two miles from the capital. We were eventually granted bail by the magistrate’s court after spending seven days behind bars (three days under National Intelligence Agency detention and four days in prison).
We were re-arraigned at the High Court of the Gambia nine days after we were granted bail by the magistrate’s court. On 1 July 2009 we were remanded in prison custody by the High Court after the Director of Public Prosecutions proffered charges of sedition, criminal defamation and conspiracy to commit felony against us. These were the same charges brought against us at the magistrate’s court. We were granted bail by the High Court after spending four nights behind bars.
Even though the European Union and the State Department urged the authorities in Banjul to drop the charges against us, they were reluctant to do so. After two months of trial, we were convicted and sentenced to a mandatory jail term of two years. We were released by Presidential Pardon after spending 27 days in jail.
In February 2011 I joined the Daily Observer Newspaper Company as a news reporter and by June of the same year, 12 of us had tendered our letters of resignation to the management of the paper. This was in reaction to the paper’s managing director, Buba Baldeh, who at that time doubled as the ruling party’s national mobiliser, being dissatisfied with the coverage of opposition party activities by the paper and instructing the editorial team to desist from publishing political meetings or rallies of the opposition in the paper.
Dissatisfied with his stance, we tried to convince him to change his opinion. However we soon realised that he not only wanted to interfere with the paper’s editorial independence and professionalism, but also wanted to use the journalists as propaganda tools for the ruling party. As such, we tendered our resignation letters to the management.
Even though the European Union and the State Department urged the authorities in Banjul to drop the charges against us, they were reluctant to do so.
