NEW YORK, June 17 (UPI) -- A press freedom group in New York is calling on Gambian authorities to release seven journalists taken into custody this week.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a release Tuesday those detained by Gambia's security agency Monday include leaders of the western African country's press union and editors of newspapers that published a union statement criticizing President Yahya Jammeh's recent comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara.
Local journalists say plainclothes agents of the National Intelligence Agency picked up Managing Editor Sam Sarr, an adviser to the Gambia Press Union, and reporter Abubakr Saidy Khan at the Foroyaa newspaper's offices.
Earlier, the agency arrested Emil Touray, Foroyaa assistant editor and the union's secretary general, along with four journalists from the private daily The Point. Managing Editor Pap Saine, News Editor Ebrima Sawaneh, and union Vice President Sarata Jabbie and Treasurer Pa Modou Fall were all being held at the NIA headquarters, local journalists said.
No official charges had been brought against any of the journalists, the New York organization said. An investigator for the security agency had no comment on the case, the group said.
"The Gambia Press Union has a right to question the government over it failure to investigate the murder of Deyda Hydara, who was formerly the managing editor of The Point," said Tom Rhodes, the committee's Africa program coordinator. "It is outrageous that security forces should detain journalists from The Point and Foroyaa for carrying a press release. All seven journalists should be released immediately."
