Waba Seeks Probe Into Gambian Editor's Murder
Hope our own Bar Association will follow thesame line.
Conteh Julla
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This Day (Lagos)
December 20, 2004
Posted to the web December 20, 2004
Lagos
The West African Bar Association (WABA) has called on President Yahaya Jammeh of Gambia to set up a commission of inquiry into the killing of veteran journalist and editor of THE POINT newspaper, Mr. Deyda Hydara.
A statement by WABA President, Mr. Femi Falana, said Hydara was a leading campaigner against two repressive media laws in The Gambia.
According to Falana, Hydara's campaigns were consistent with the provisions of the African Charter on Human Rights adding that the government has the obligation to find the killers of the journalist.
Hydara, who was also a correspondent of the AFP news agency in his country, was shot three times in the head on Thursday after midnight as he was returning from work.
The Gambian police said the killing is being investigated.
A controversial press law was passed in The Gambia last week and the private media organisations have criticised it as being made to curtail press freedom.
The law stipulates jail terms for journalists found guilty of publishing libels or sedition. The law also empowers security agents to seize the homes of the editors of the newspapers accused of libelous publication.
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The leader of The Gambian Press Union, Mr. Demba Jawo, reportedly said of Hydara : "He has been very critical of the government and very vocal in opposition to these repressive laws, but that does not mean that he of all persons, should have been the target of an assassin's bullet".
The government has defended the media law as being necessary to "make journalists more responsible".