Gambia Justice Minister Claims Missing Journalist Alive

DONATE

SUPPORT WWW.JOLLOFNEWS.COM

Gambia Justice Minister Claims Missing Journalist Alive

Wednesday, 12 October 2011 18:30

IPI Calls for More Information
(IPI) – In an exclusive interview with the Gambian newspaper Daily News on Monday, Justice Minister Edu Gomez said that Chief Ebrimah Manneh, a journalist who was arrested in 2006 and has been missing ever since, is alive and that he is not in government custody.
However, he refused to clarify further, saying: “But let the right time come, that’s all I can tell you. We shall talk about this case at a later stage when it is more convenient; when I can prove to you beyond reasonable doubt the lies, the intrigues, the ill feeling, the negative feeling of some of your colleagues [referring to journalists].” Edu_Gomez_jollof

The minister also had some choice words for the press and for the United States and the United Kingdom. “Look, I find it rather childish when you [journalists] are being hoodwinked and circumvented to talk about the frivolous and unfair accusations they brought about the Gambia when [the U.S. and U.K.] themselves have a lot of despicable acts which they are not talking about.” He added, during the interview: “It is about time, you people come to realise that you don’t allow white people or people outside this country to look at you as inferior and stupid and then they coax you to write stupid things about your own leaders.”
The ECOWAS Community Court ruled in 2008 that the Gambian government should reveal the whereabouts of Chief Ebrimah Manneh and release him. IPI members and others have said they feared that Manneh had died in custody.
“We welcome the minister’s comments that Chief Ebrimah Manneh is indeed alive, but are puzzled by his unwillingness to produce any evidence to back his claims,” said IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “His accusation that Gambian journalists are publishing only one side of the story is unfair, given the government’s unwillingness to produce evidence to back their version of events. As a journalist myself, I can assure the minister that journalists have it in their blood to dig deeper and find the truth – and the Gambia cannot expect reporters to simply take official statements at face value without any facts to back up government claims.
“We strongly urge the government to reveal Mr. Manneh’s whereabouts, and help ensure his safety and freedom,” Bethel McKenzie said.
The minister also denied allegations that the government had tortured journalist Musa Saidykhan. In December 2010, the ECOWAS Community Court ruled that the government had indeed tortured Saidykhan, editor of the now-defunct newspaper The Independent, while he was in their custody in 2006 and ordered the goverment to pay Saidykhan US $200,000.
Written by Naomi Hunt, Press Freedom Adviser