WAJA Hails ECOWAS Court On Verdict Freeing 4 Gambian Journalists

West African Journalists Association (WAJA) has welcomed as groundbreaking, the guilty verdict brought down by the ECOWAS Court against the Gambian Government in a case involving four journalists.

The court ruled on February 14, 2018 that the government of former President Yahya Jammeh violated the rights of the journalists to freedom of expression, liberty and movement.

The four journalists had been arrested, detained and tortured in line with their work, but subsequently fled into exile for fear of their lives.

In its judgment, the sub-regional Court of Justice, declared that the criminal laws on libel, sedition and false news, disproportionately interfere with the rights of the journalists. It therefore directed the new government of President Adama Barrow to “immediately repeal or amend” these laws in line with its obligations under international law.

President of WAJA, Mr. Peter Quaqua while celebrating the verdict, said this singular action by the court is not only victory for journalism, but also a strong statement for democracy and freedom across West Africa.

According to him, the judgement should serve as a wake-up call to all governments in the sub-region that still maintain criminal libel laws to abolish them quickly before they are embarrassed.

“We will take full advantage of this precedent, to bring to book any government, keen on treating journalism as a crime, through the enforcement of such repressive laws,” Quaqua cautioned.

The case of the four exiled Gambian journalists was filed by the Federation of African Journalists in December 2015 in collaboration with the Media Legal Defence Initiative based in the UK.