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In
2015 the manager of Gambian independent radio station Teranga FM was slapped
with sedition and "publication of false news" charges for privately
sharing a provocative photo of President Yahya Jammeh, seen in 2013 ©Alain
Jocard (AFP)
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Popular independent
Gambian radio station Teranga FM was Sunday ordered to cease operations by
national security agents for unspecified reasons, a security source and staff
member said.
AFP
report continues:
The
station, which translates news from Gambian papers into local languages, has
previously been silenced and in 2015 its manager was slapped with sedition and
"publication of false news" charges for privately sharing a
provocative photo of President Yahya Jammeh.
"Four
National Intelligence Agency operatives and one police officer in uniform came
to the radio station this afternoon (Sunday) around 2:30 pm and told us to stop
broadcasting," a staff member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"They
said they have been ordered by the director general of NIA, Yankuba Badjie, to
tell us to stop broadcasting with immediate effect. We asked them the reason
for their action, but they said they are only acting on executive orders and do
not know the reason why the radio should stop broadcasting," he added.
A
security source said no one had been arrested but could not say why the radio
station was ordered off the air.
"We
only asked them to stop broadcasting and they cooperated with us. They have
stopped broadcasting since in the afternoon," the source disclosed.
The
radio station was not broadcasting Sunday evening.
Station
manager Alagie Ceesay was arrested by the country's secret police in July 2015
on charges of sedition and "publication of false news" relating to
allegations that he distributed images by mobile phone of a gun pointed at a
picture of Jammeh.
Ceesay
escaped from hospital where he was being treated in mid-April last year while
on trial for sedition.
Jammeh,
who has ruled the small West African country with an iron fist since taking
power in a bloodless coup in 1994, lost December's presidential election but
has rejected the results and filed a court challenge.
He
is regularly accused of rights abuses and repression of the media.
The Gambia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2016 World Press Freedom Index, pointing to "a climate of terror around anything remotely to do with journalism".
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