Reporters Without Borders
Press release

14 December 2007

GAMBIA

On third anniversary of journalist’s murder, indifference in Banjul  for 
family and friends

The third anniversary of the murder of Deyda Hydara, the editor of  The 
Point newspaper and Banjul correspondent of Agence France-Presse  and 
Reporters Without Borders, will be commemorated with great  sadness by 
Reporters Without Borders on 16 December, especially as  the Gambian 
authorities have made no attempt to identify and punish  his killers.

“Hydara’s family and friends have been mourning this great African  
journalist for three years while the government does nothing or just  
slanders his memory, and we pay tribute to their courage and  resolve,” the 
press freedom organisation said.

“Everything President Yahya Jammeh has said about Hydara has been  
contradictory or aggressive and it is now clear that his government  has no 
intention of shedding light on this terrible murder. Although,  for the time 
being, they must continue to live in world of rumour and  indifference, we 
assure them we will continue to campaign until the  truth comes out.”

Hydara was shot dead in a street beside a police barracks as he was  driving 
two employees home on the evening of 16 December 2004. He had  previously 
received threats from the National Intelligence Agency,  which had him under 
surveillance a few minutes before he was gunned  down.

No serious attempt was made to identify either the perpetrators or  
instigators of this murder. The only official statement from the  Gambian 
officials responsible for the investigation came six months  later. 
Referring to Hydara as “provocative,” it absurdly suggested  that the murder 
could have been linked to his sex life.

In a New Year’s interview in January, President Jammeh blamed  “Gambia’s 
enemies” for Hydara’s murder. He said Hydara was killed  with the aim of 
preventing him, Jammeh, from being elected president  of the Economic 
Community Of West African States (ECOWAS). He did not  elaborate.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24749

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