Outrage at detention of Gambian journalists

Reporters Without Borders said it is outraged to learn that six leading members of the Gambia Press Union, including the editors of two newspapers, were sent back to prison yesterday on sedition and defamation charges.
The GPU’s vice-president, the mother of a young child, was also rearrested but was freed on bail.
RWB has called for them all to be released unconditionally at once.
“This is clearly a ploy by the president to hound the staff of the opposition newspaper Foroyaa and the independent newspaper The Point and force them to close.”
RWB added: “The way the authorities play with the lives of these journalists by repeatedly sending them to prison cannot leave the international community unmoved. We appeal to all the organisations of which Gambia is a member, including the African Union, ECOWAS and the Commonwealth, to condemn this outrage.”
The Committe to Protect Journalists' Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes said:"The charges against these journalists represent a government ploy to wipe out the last vestiges of the private press in the country and the courts should reverse this decision and release the journalists immediately."