Gambian authorities have arrested and detained a journalist for the second time since September, family members and the Gambia Press Union said Sunday.
Baboucarr Ceesay, vice president of the Gambia Press Union, was picked up by plain-clothes officers of the National Intelligence Agency on Friday shortly after leaving his house, a relative told AFP.
Ceesay, who is also a correspondent for the Kenya-based website Africareview.com, had been on his way to the headquarters of the Gambia Press Union, the source said. The union confirmed the arrest.
No reason was given for the arrest, which comes after Ceesay was held for nearly four days last September, along with a freelance reporter, for seeking a permit from the country’s police chief to hold a peaceful demonstration over the August execution of nine death row prisoners.
The charges against the reporters of conspiracy to commit a felony and incitement to violence were later dropped.
A sliver of land nestled within Senegal with a narrow strip of Atlantic coast, Gambia is ruled with an iron fist by President Yahya Jammeh, who is often accused of muzzling journalists, among other rights abuses.
A journalist working for the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency over a month ago and remains in detention.
Alagie Jobe is accused of "writing letters on Daily Observer letterhead for Gambian asylum seekers abroad and those within the country applying for visas in return for huge sums of money", a security source told AFP in February.
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