Gambia: Former state press officer faces possible jail term

The Gambia UPDATE: Former state press officer faces possible jail term for passing on information to journalist

MFWA

Mam Sait Ceesay, a former editor of the Daily Observer, a Banjul-based pro-government newspaper was again on February 25, 2008 arraigned before a Banjul Magistrate Court over charges of publishing false information.

The journalist's appearance in court followed a brief detention on February 2, 2008 at the Serious Crime Unit of The Gambia Police Force. He is being charged on two counts of publishing and broadcasting false information under Section 181 of the Criminal Code which in its amended form makes the publication of "false information" a criminal and punishable offence. He faces a minimum of one year in jail with an option of a fine of not less than 50,000 dalasis (approx. US$1,850), or both, if convicted Ceesay, also a former press officer at the office of the President of The Gambia, is alleged to had caused a publication of a false information in the the Daily Observer on September 7, 2008 that Ebrima J.T Kujabi, President Yahya Jammeh's press secretary, had been replaced.

Earlier on September 9, 2007, Ceesay and Malick Jones, a another journalist with the state-owned Gambia Radio and Television Service (GRTS), were held incommunicado for three days following over the same story. The two journalists were arraigned before the Banjul Magistrates' Court on September 12, 2007, and charged with "passing information to a foreign journalist, contrary to Section 4 of the Official Secret Acts of the Laws of The Gambia." Even though a court granted them bail, later the same day they were immediately re-arrested.

Both journalists managed to fulfill the bail conditions within a few weeks and were subsequently released. A magistrate court suspended the case on September 26, 2007, following a procedural error on the part of the prosecution.