Gambia: GPU slams President Jammeh over late Deyda Hydara

The Gambian Press Union (GPU) has in a statement issued on June 12, 2009 condemned President Yahya Jammeh’s deliberate attempt to vilifying Deyda Hydara, editor and a former critic of his repressive administration, brutally murdered in 2004 by unknown assailants, immediately after his newspaper celebrated its 13th anniversary.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s sources reported that since the murder, official investigations into his murder have not produced any serious results and that the government of President Jammeh has consistently waged a smear campaign on Hydara as an attempt to shield the perpetrators, who are believed to be members of his “Green Boys”.

Speaking in an interview on the state-owned Gambian Radio and Television Stations (GRTS) on June 9, President Jammeh once again quoted the findings of his notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) which concluded that Hydara’s gruesome murder could be as a result of personal revenge by a jealous husband, whose wife committed adultery with Hydara.

According to the Gambian Press Union (GPU), the character assassination of Hydara by President Jammeh was “most unfortunate; that (as he has been claiming to be) champion for the promotion of … African … traditional norms and values”, “and someone, who claims to have total respect for religion (in general) and Islam in particular, finds it appropriate to ridicule and speak ill of the dead. Such behavior and countenance is most unreligious, un-cultural and certainly discredits traditional African norms and values”.

Hydara, managing editor and co-owner of the independent newspaper The Point, was shot in the head by unidentified assailants while he was driving home from his office in Banjul, late on December 16, 2004. At the time of the incident he was waging a strong campaign against repressive media laws introduced by the regime.

President Jammeh, in that interview, claimed that the country enjoys freedom of expression. This the GPU refuted by cataloguing a number of arbitrary arrests and detentions of Gambian citizens and journalists including Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter of the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper.

Concerning repressive laws introduced under the government, the GPU said they were “surprised” that President Jammeh claimed that freedom of expression exists in the Gambia.

“Mr. President, we beg to differ. The legal environment, in particular the Newspaper Amendment Act 2004, the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2004, the Newspaper Registration Act and the recently passed Communications Bill 2009 make it practically impossible to practice efficiently as a journalist and yet remain within the ambits of the law”, the statement emphasised.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax : 233 21 221084
Website : www.mediafound.org
Email: [email][email protected]