Monday December 20, 12:04 AM  Autopsy confirms AFP journalist in Gambia died of bullet woundsADVERTISEMENT
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An autopsy of AFP journalist Deida Hydara, killed last week in the Gambian capital Banjul, confirmed that he was shot dead, an associate said, adding that his two colleagues would undergo surgery for bullet wounds.

"The autopsy confirmed that Deida was indeed killed by bullets and hit by three projectiles fired by one or several men," the source said, requesting anonymity.

"His two collaborators (Ida Jagne-Joof and Nyang Jobe) were wounded by bullets in the legs and will be operated on at the start of the week," he said.

Fifty-eight-year-old Hydara was shot overnight Thursday after leaving the office of the hard-hitting newspaper The Point, of which he was co-owner. He also worked for AFP and the France-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters Without Borders).

Hydara, who is survived by a widow and four children, was driving Jagne-Joof and Jobe home from the paper, the source said, adding that the taxi in which the killers were riding had no license plates.

Leonard Vincent, head of the Africa service of RSF, said Hydara was the "impetus" behind an open letter sent Thursday by RSF to President Yahwa Jammeh urging him not to sign into law a repressive press bill -- which he did last Tuesday.

Under the new law, journalists can be jailed for violating press laws and the newspaper owners must pay a hefty bond.

In Dakar late Saturday, the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO) condemned the murder, calling Hydara a "martyr who paid the price of his commitment to freedom of the press and human rights."

"It is easy to see that all journalists who are struggling against the Media Commission Bill, a freedom-killing law, are subject to threats, intimidation and harassment," RADDHO said in a statement.

On Saturday, Interior Minister Amadour Janneh, said he saw no relation between the killing and the new press law.

Hydara "was not alone in being critical (of the law). There were also members of the National Assembly who were strongly opposed to it. Even some members of the ruling party voted against them, and other independent publications also criticized these laws, so I don't see any link between this law and the killing," Janneh said.

Gambia is a former British colony stretched along the Gambia river and forming an enclave between the northern and southern parts of Senegal, a former French colony.

In addition to state-run television and a state-controlled newspaper, it has a lively media, with four independent newspapers and four private radio stations.

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