Gambia News : State Closes Case Against EX-Press Officer

The prosecution in the trial of Mam Sait Ceesay, former State House Press Officer, on Wednesday 7^th May closed its case. Mr. Ceesay, is being tried on two counts of “false publication and broadcasting.”

According to the prosecution Mr. Mam Sait Ceesay published or caused to be published through the Daily Observer that one Mr. Alex Dacosta had been appointed to the position Director Of Press and Public Relations Office of The President when Mr. James Kujabi was still the substantive holder of that office, and “thereby committed an offence.” The case, presided over by Magistrate Kayode of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court, was  adjourned to 14^th  May for the defense to open its case. A similar case involving the Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry, Mr. Momodou Njie, is also on-going in a Magistrate’s court in Banjul .

Mr. Njie is facing a charge of “false publication and broadcasting”  for allegedly saying in a bar room chat that he thought the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper does not really belong to business tycoon, Mr. Amadou Samba.  Most Gambians believe that Mr. Samba, who is a business crony of Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, is just standing in for him as owner of the paper. The odd offense of “false publication and broadcasting” has become a standard instrument that the Gambian state uses to suppress the free flow of information.

Src: Gambia Journal, The