World media chiefs meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, demanded action on Tuesday from the Gambian government on the as-yet unsolved December murder of a journalist, and pilloried the country for repressing the independent press.
More than 250 publishers, editors and reporters from the International Press Institute (IPI) said they were ”horrified” by the December 16 2004 slaying of Deyda Hydara, the co-founder and editor of the independent newspaper The Point and correspondent for news agency AFP.
In a resolution adopted at the end of the three-day annual IPI general assembly, they decried the fact that no one has yet been arrested in Hydara’s killing, which was allegedly carried out to silence his criticism of the government.
And, the IPI slammed Gambian authorities for imposing draconian restrictions on the independent press and doing nothing to quell the ”climate of fear” created by Hydara’s murder and other incidents of persecution of journalists.
”The IPI calls on the government of The Gambia to institute a thorough investigation into Hydara’s death and bring the perpetrators of this and other crimes against the media to justice, repeal restrictive press measures, revert to genuine democratic practice and guarantee the security of journalists,” it said.
It also called on the African Union to move its Banjul-based Commission of People’s and Human Rights to another city ”to protest The Gambia’s descent into authoritarianism”.
Hydara was gunned down behind the wheel of his car as he was driving two employees home late at night, and international press-freedom watchdog Reporters sans Frontières has said he was under surveillance by Gambian intelligence services until minutes before his murder.
The IPI said other incidents of press harassment and intimidation in The Gambia have included regular raids on independent media outlets, destruction of property, physical attacks and arbitrary arrests. — Sapa-AFP