“Taranga FM is one of the only—one might argue the only independent station in The Gambia,” Jeff Smith of the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights told SaharaReporters. Mr. Smith said Taranga FM has been shut down by government authorities multiple times and is one of the country's last bastions of independent voice.
More than two weeks after his abduction by the Gambian government, radio manager Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay has been charged with sedition by a court in Banjul, the country’s capital, The Gambia’s Daily Observer reports.
Mr. Ceesay is the managing director of Taranga FM, a radio station in the community of Sinchu Alhagie. His present detainment began on July 17th, just days after his release from an 11-day imprisonment earlier last month.
“Taranga FM is one of the only—one might argue the only independent station in The Gambia,” Jeff Smith of the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights told SaharaReporters. Mr. Smith said Taranga FM has been shut down by government authorities multiple times and is one of the country's last bastions of independent voice.
According to the Daily Observer, Mr. Ceesay distributed to two acquaintances via his cell phone pictures of President Yahya Jammeh meant to incite discontent against the Gambian head of state. The pictures allegedly show a gun pointed at the President.
In the application for bail, Mr. Ceesay’s lawyer, Combeh Gaye-Coker, noted the government had violated her client’s constitutional right not to be detained longer than 72 hours without charges.
On July 2nd, two men thought to be officials of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) abducted Mr. Ceesay outside Taranga FM’s headquarters in Banjul. He was released on July 13th “weak and traumatized,” a source at the radio station told AFP.
Family members told AFP that Mr. Ceesay was tortured during his first detainment. Mr. Ceesay himself didn’t make any public comments before his second abduction.
The Gambian government refrained from commenting on either of Mr. Ceesay’s disappearances until the announcement of the charges yesterday.