The Manager of Yiriwa FM, Pa Modou Bojang, informed Media Agenda’s current affairs that he was technically detained on Tuesday the 26 August, and Wednesday the 27 August 2008 of last week over the battle of ownership of the Yiriwa FM, a developmental radio station in rural town of Brikama in the western region. He said, that was the second time he was being interrogated at the NIAs offices.

According to reports the interrogation of  Bojang  came in the wake of a dispute involving one Basiru Darboe and Aboubacatt Al Turkey , a Malian citizen who have being residing in the country for a very long time, over the ownership of the radio.

Darboe’s lawyer Lamin Jorbateh have since written a letter to the radio, which lawyer Lamin Mboge counsel for radio confirmed receiving and he too send a similar letter on behalf of his client to the other party.

The  radio was visited by the NIA operatives and  some questiong were made.The radio has  not  been stop for their normal programme as the dispute is  being handled by the NIAs.The radio is curently going with programmes, said the  manager.

Abdul Hamid Adiamoh, the editor and proprietor of TODAY newspaper was on Thursday 28 August 2008, charged with seditious intention after a publication of a story indicating children dodge school to look for scrap metals for sale at the expense of their schooling. He is standing trial before Principal Magistrate Buba Jawo of the kanifing magistrate courts.

According to the particulars of the alleged offence the accuse Hamid on or about the 15 of July 2008, at kanifing Municipality printed and distributed or reproduces a story in his newspaper, children dodge from school to pick scrap metals.

The embattled journalist was reporting to the police head quarters since July of this year and was on two occasions detained for a couple of days. On Wednesday 27 August 2008, when he reported at the Banjul police for his usual reporting, he was made to wait until 3pm, there after he was informed that he will be appearing before the court, to answer to some charges made against him.

Reaching the courts at Kanifing, there was no judge to hear his case, so he was detained over night at the kotu police station, till Thursday morning the 28 august 2008.

Hamid is granted a court bail in the sum of D2000, 000, with a Gambian surety, and the case is adjourned to the 10 September 2008, for proper hearing. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

It will be recalled the same magistrate has just handed a heavy fine of D250, 000 on Fatou Jaw Manneh a few days ago. It was also the same judge who found Lamin Fatty guilty and fine him D50, 000.00.the two are journalists in the country.

The offices of 24 Heures Chrono and L’As, two privately-owned, Dakar-based newspapers, were on August 17, 2008 ransacked by a group of men driving vehicles bearing official Senegalese Government registration numbers.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the attackers drove into the premises of 24 Heures Chrono in a white Toyota L200 at about 20:30GMT. They forced their way into the office and where they destroyed computers and other equipment.

Abalye Dièye, a driver and production clerk of 24 Heures Chrono was also beaten and robbed of his mobile phone.

Fifteen minutes later, a vehicle of the same description stormed the office of L’As, attacked staff members with pepper spray and destroyed their computers.

Following this, a vehicle of the same type appeared at the office of Le Courrier newspaper at approximately 22:00GMT. However, the vehicle sped off after police were called in by the managing editor, Pape Amdou Gaye, who had received several anonymous calls warning him of a possible attack.

Although the motives behind the assaults remain unknown, it is believed the attack was prompted by recent articles carried by the newspapers on Transport Minister, Faraba Senghore.

These articles were critical of Minister Senghore’s department and his personal life. In response to these articles Senghore, had three days before the incident threatened to retaliate “by all means” against the journalists whom he claimed had been “attacking” him.

The Media Foundation for West Africa

According to a press release from the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), a copy of which was delivered to The Point yesterday, indicates that CBG on 14th August 2008 issued a licence to Oceanic Bank (Gambia) Ltd to do business in The Gambia.

Oceanic Bank (Gambia) Limited, according to the release, is a subsidiary of Oceanic Bank Plc. in Nigeria, with a market capitalisation of US$2.95 billion and subsidiaries in four (4) other West African countries.

The licensing of Oceanic Bank (Gambia) Limited brings to eleven (11) the number of commercial banks operating in The Gambia.

Here is a verbatim report of an American Senator Durbin who is calling for release of our Gambian journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh who has been missing for two years now. Senator has not only limited to the case of Manneh but many others in the world. Here goes the call.

   Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, America has long been a champion and source of hope around the world for those suffering human rights violations--those holed up in dictators' prisons, those fighting for press and political freedoms, those bravely standing up to tyranny or injustice.

   Many of those who have suffered, such as Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela, or continue to suffer this fate, such as Aung San Suu Kyi, are well-known to us. Sadly, for each one of them, there are many other, lesser known heroes being detained or harassed all over the world simply for wanting basic human freedoms.

   Through our annual human rights reporting at the State Department, our diplomacy, and steady public pressure on basic human rights, the U.S. has traditionally been a source of hope for those being illegally detained or persecuted.

   We should never forget what this kind of attention and pressure can accomplish and what kind of strength it provides for those being detained.

   Take for example, Ngawang Sangdrol, a Tibetan nun who was detained and tortured for peacefully expressing her belief in Tibetan independence. She was freed after 12 years of imprisonment following immense public pressure. After her release she said,

   I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support ..... I am deeply touched to learn that many individuals, organizations, and governments.......have worked towards my release. It is very clear to me that I have been released and allowed to come out to the free world for medical treatment and to enjoy my freedom because of international concern.

   Or Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev, a political activist from Turkmenistan who in 2004 was seized and forced into a psychiatric hospital by the country's ruling dictator. His crime--requesting permission for a peaceful political rally.

   He was released a few years later, just 10 days after 54 members of Congress sent a letter to the Turkmen Government about his case.

   We should listen and act upon the appeal made by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has remained under house arrest in Burma for most of the last 19 years:

   Those fortunate enough to live in societies where they are entitled to full political rights can reach out to help the less fortunate in other parts of our troubled planet....... Please use your liberty to promote ours.

   I realize we must also work to address our own recent shortcomings by unequivocally renouncing torture and by closing the detention facility in Guantanamo--and we will continue to work toward ending these shameful legacies.

   At the same time, we must continue to speak out in support of those imprisoned for advocating basic freedoms around the world.

   Many of us on both sides of the aisle have been arguing that America's strength resonates not only from its military power but from the power of its ideas and inspiration, the power of its values and hope, the power of its generosity and diplomacy--its smart power.

   Sadly, I worry that a measure of this leadership, of this inspiration, and of this uniquely American hope has been lost in recent years.

   Accordingly, today I want focus the Senate's attention on a tragic story from the small west African Nation of The Gambia.

   Chief Ebrima Manneh was a reporter for the Gambian newspaper, the Daily Observer. He was allegedly detained in July 2006 by plainclothes police officers thought to have been from the Gambian National Intelligence Agency after he tried to republish a BBC report critical of President Yahya Jammeh.

   He has been held incommunicado, without charge or trial, for two long years. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience and has called for his immediate release.

   I agree.

   Recent reports suggest he is being held at the Fatoto Police Station in eastern Gambia. In July 2007, he was also reportedly escorted by the members of the Gambian Police Intervention Unit to the Royal Victoria hospital in the capital for high blood pressure treatment.

   Despite repeated attempts by Manneh's father and fellow journalists, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, to seek information on Mr. Manneh, the Gambian Government continues to deny any involvement in his arrest or knowledge of his whereabouts.

   My direct request to the Gambian Embassy here in Washington has also been met with shameful silence.

   Last month in Nigeria, the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States declared the arrest and detention of Mr. Manneh illegal and ordered Gambian officials to release him immediately.

   And yet the Gambian Government ignored this court's ruling as well--even though this court has jurisdiction for human rights cases in the Gambia.

   Is the Gambian Government so afraid of one of its own reporters that it cannot even acknowledge his detention?

   I say to President Jammeh: Release this reporter. Let him return to his family.

   Sadly, Mr. Manneh's case is not alone in The Gambia. In December 2004, a critic of President Jammeh, and press freedom advocate, Deyda Hydara, was shot and killed. His murder has yet to be solved or investigated.

   The government has also enacted laws muzzling the press and imposing mandatory prison sentences for media owners if convicted of publishing defamatory or seditious material--all part of a larger deterioration of basic freedoms in The Gambia. 

 Madam President, the United States needs to be a forceful advocate for these kinds of blatant human rights abuses. Doing so is not only the right thing to do, but it is the smart thing to do in terms of our engagement abroad and in demonstrating our American values.

   I yield the floor.

Four journalists in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana were on August 1, 2008 attacked by supporters of the country’s two main political parties, while covering the ongoing voters’ registration exercise in the city.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the incident occurred at a registration centre in the Tamale Central Constituency, when confusion broke out between supporters of ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The journalists involved were Alhassan Abdul Ganiuw Brigandi, reporter of The Independent, Isaac Nongya reporter of Metropolitan TV (Metro TV) and his cameraman and Kwabena Ntow photographer of The Chronicle.

Brigandi, according to a report in the August 5 edition of The Independent was violently attacked by a group of NDC supporters while giving a live report to an Accra-based independent radio station, Citi FM about some minors allegedly brought by the NDC to registration centre to be registered.

“I was giving a report on what was happening at the polling station to my superiors in Accra, when I heard a voice say, I was an NPP sympathizer. Before I could say jack, they started throwing stones at me and beat me up.”, the newspaper quoted Brigandi as saying.
 
Brigandi sustained serious body injuries and was admitted at the Tamale regional hospital.

The Metro TV   crew was also chased away while they were covering the violence. MFWA learnt that the crew was save d by the constituency chairman of the NDC.

Both parties have since denied responsibility and condemned the attacks.

Media Foundation for West Africa

Central Bank Sets up Credit Reference Bureau

According to a press release dated 28th July 2008 and made available to this paper, Central Bank of The Gambia has set up a Credit Reference Bureau as an integral part of its Financial Supervision Department. The bureau, the release states, will seek to facilitate the mutual sharing of consumer credit information by commercial banks with a view to making for “accurate evaluation of credit risks.” The full text of the release is reproduced below:

As part of its continuing efforts to further strengthen the Financial Sector, the Central Bank of The Gambia is pleased to announce to the general public of the setting-up of a Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) within its Financial Supervision Department. The raison d’etre of the bureau is to enable commercial banks share consumer credit information reciprocally thereby ensuring a more accurate evaluation of credit risks.

The CRB is established to provide a platform for the financial institutions to strengthen their credit appraisal procedures with a view to enhancing credit quality and responsible Credit behaviour in the Gambian financial system.

The CRB is established with the objective of enabling the financial institutions to identify borrowers who default in servicing the credit facilities extended to them by other lenders with a view to preventing such customers from enjoying any new facilities from any other bank until they made good their outstanding delinquent credits in the former bank(s). It is also hoped that good debtors can enjoy concessionary rates from the banks for being rated low risk.

In order to facilitate the successful implementation of the CRB, Tax Identification Number (TIN) is an integral part. In that regard, all banks have been informed that henceforth, no account should be opened without a Tax Identification Number (TIN) as this is the main driver of the CRB. In addition, no new Credit facility should be granted or extended without a TIN.

Following our yesterday story on the arraignment of two people for issuing false cheques of over D8 million, J-FIN financial services have issued a press release to clarify that the Muhammed Jagana mentioned in the story as one of the alleged culprits is not the one at J-FIN financial services whose name happens to be Muhammad M. Jagana. The full unedited version of the press release is reproduced hereunder:

TWO CHARGED FOR ISSUING FALSE CHEQUES OF OVER D8M

We refer to your Thursday 26th June 2008 Point Newspaper Edition captioned TWO CHARGED FOR ISSUING FALSE CHEQUES OF OVER D8M in which one Muhammed Jagana and Assan Njie were the accused.

The general public is hereby informed that the matter has nothing to do with Muhammad M. Janga of J - Financial Services, Kanifing, The Gambia.

Muhammad M. Jagana of J-FIN does not have any business relationship with regard to cement trading either with Amadou Samba or GACEM.

We thank all those who called to express their concern and assure them and the general public that J-Fin is a reputable financial institution.

We hope next time newspapers will always carry the addresses of accused persons to avoid confusion and damages in the personality of people who bear the same name with accused persons.

Editor’s Note:

We are sorry that the wrong man bearing the same name has been ruffled by the story in question. However it is worthy of note that the story is on a court proceeding and the material and the proceeding our reporter garnered his information from unfortunately has no mention of the addresses of the accused persons. 

The Gambia will be hosting Global Education Conference tomorrow Saturday May 24th 2008, according to a press release sent to this paper.

The event, to be organised by US-based Delight Heritage Consultants, will be the first international conference on ‘Education and Development Initiatives’. It will be held at YMCA Centre in Kanifing.

According to the Banjul Representative of the organisers, Poncelet Ileleji of YMCA, the conference is expected to bring together “ top national and international educators, researchers, stakeholders and donor agency representatives from around the world. There will be information exchange and collaboration in education and development efforts in The Gambia.” Ileleji added that the event would promote systematic approaches to furthering the development of education and national growth in the country.

Highlights of the conference will include paper presentations by Joseph Peacock of YMCA, Mrs. Isatou Ndow of Gambia College and other Gambian educators. International scholars like Dr. Buba Misawa of Washington and Jefferson College, Dr. Emeka Obiozor of Bloomsburg University and Dr. Emil Nagengast of Juniata College Pennsylvania-USA will be participating.

There will also be a special presentation of ‘Special Education Books’ to The Gambia Methodist Special School teachers by an American University Professor.

“This free conference is open to all Gambian educators, students, teachers and the general public”, the release concluded.