The Gambia: Editors slate detention

The Southern Africa Editors’ Forum (Saef) and the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) have condemned the detention and harassment of the editor of the Gambian newspaper, The Independent, by that country’s intelligence agents, according to a statement. Musa Saidykhan was taken from his office in Banjul after he had written a story in his newspaper about how South African President Thabo Mbeki, had promised to help Gambian journalists by interceding with the government there over media repression. At the recent TAEF launch conference in Johannesburg, Saidykhan asked President Thabo Mbeki to raise the unsolved murder of Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara last December with the Gambian authorities.