{"id":31544,"date":"2017-01-02T22:45:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T22:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/the-gambia-s-teranga-fm-and-hilltop-radio-closed\/"},"modified":"2017-01-02T22:45:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T22:45:53","slug":"the-gambia-s-teranga-fm-and-hilltop-radio-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/the-gambia-s-teranga-fm-and-hilltop-radio-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gambia’s Teranga FM and Hilltop radio closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Security forces in The Gambia have shut down two private radio stations, the main press union has said, amid a crisis over President Yaya Jammeh’s refusal to step down.}<\/p>\n

The closure of Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio was a “slap in the face” for democracy, said Emil Touray, the head of The Gambia Press Union.<\/p>\n

This is the first sign of a crackdown on the media since Mr Jammeh refused to accept defeat in the 1 December poll.<\/p>\n

He first took power in a coup in 1994.<\/p>\n

The Gambian strongman initially conceded to property developer Adama Barrow, but then launched court action to annul the result, saying the poll was marred by irregularities.<\/p>\n

The electoral commission said the poll was free and fair.<\/p>\n

Both radio stations were closed on Sunday, Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n

“People will not have access to information in this critical period of our history,” Mr Touray is quoted by Reuters as saying.<\/p>\n

Four National Intelligence Agency operatives and a police officer visited the offices of Teranga FM to demand its closure, a staff member told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

There has been no official comment from the government.<\/p>\n

{{‘Climate of terror’}}<\/p>\n

Teranga FM manager Alagie Ceesay was arrested in July 2015 on charges of sedition and “publication of false news” – allegations he denied.<\/p>\n

The Gambia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in media campaign group Reporters Without Borders’ 2016 World Press Freedom Index.<\/p>\n

It said there was “a climate of terror around anything remotely to do with journalism”.<\/p>\n

The UN and West African regional body Ecowas have urged Mr Jammeh to respect the will of the people and step down when his term ends on 19 January.<\/p>\n

Ecowas officials say that neighbouring Senegal’s troops are ready to intervene if Mr Jammeh refuses to hand power to Mr Barrow.<\/p>\n

Mr Jammeh said that any deployment would be an “act of war”.<\/p>\n

Mr Barrow caused a major upset by defeating Mr Jammeh by 43.3% to 39.6%.<\/p>\n

The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.<\/p>\n

It is a popular tourist destination because of its beaches.<\/p>\n

\"Yahya<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Security forces in The Gambia have shut down two private radio stations, the main press union has said, amid a crisis over President Yaya Jammeh’s refusal to step down.} The closure of Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio was a “slap in the face” for democracy, said Emil Touray, the head of The Gambia Press Union. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31544"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31544"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}