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Manneh, right, received
special recognition in Amnesty's Special Award for
Journalism Under Threat category. The award pays tribute to the courage of
journalists around the world who pursue their work at great personal risk. Its purpose
is to draw attention to the dangers that journalists encounter. The winner of
the Special Award this year was Eynulla Fatullayev from
Azerbaijan, who is currently serving an eight and a half year sentence because
of his outspoken journalism and criticism of government policies in that
country. Manneh and Cuban journalist Pablo
Pacheco Avila were highlighted for special recognition in the category.
Manneh's case deserves this recognition. In July 2006, he was working at the
office of the Daily Observer newspaper
when plainclothes officers asked him to accompany them for questioning. Since
then, he's been held incommunicado. It is believed that he was arrested for attempting
to publish a BBC
article that was critical of the government.
There have been few sightings of him since. In one case, a year after his
arrest, a witness reported that Manneh, accompanied by police officers, was receiving
treatment for high blood pressure at a local hospital. What a scandal, though: The
government is still denying
all knowledge of his whereabouts.
Having talked to Manneh's family on a number of occasions, this case fills me
with a sense of horror. Manneh supported his whole family with his journalism.
Since he's been gone, they've suffered financially. But the financial aspect is
just one part of a terrible situation: Imagine the pain of not knowing when
your son or brother is coming home. Imagine not knowing whether he's dead or
alive, or whether he's been tortured. In fact, it's impossible for me to
really imagine the full impact of what it must be like for them.
We're hoping that honoring Manneh at the Amnesty Media Awards will serve as an
embarrassment to the Gambian government and encourage them to think again. To
keep the pressure on, I really hope you can take action for Manneh and help
secure his freedom.
You'll see that we've launched a photo action campaign for Manneh. We're gathering
creative photos from all around the world asking the very simple question: Where
is Ebrima Manneh? We want the Gambian government to provide the answer. So far
we've collected more than 100 pictures that we'll make
into a photo album to present to the Gambian authorities on a day of action on
July 22. I hope you can take part.
Kali Mercier is
Amnesty International
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