“No journalist should be jailed for reporting the facts no matter how embarrassing these facts may be to the Gambian government”, IPI Director David Dadge said. “Moreover, rather than carrying out the government’s bidding, judges in the Gambian legal system should be upholding the rights of journalists to report the facts.”

Saine was arrested along with senior reporter Modou Sanyang, who was questioned and then released. Saine, who was ill at the time, was held for eight hours in the serious crime unit at police headquarters in the capital Banjul.

Police officers ordered Saine to reveal his sources for the story about the replacement of three top diplomats in Washington, according to the Media Foundation for West Africa. When he refused, Saine was charged with “publishing and broadcasting false information.”

Saine was not immediately available for comment on his arrest and the charges against him.

But the exiled editor of The Independent, Alagi Yorro Jallow, said in an e-mail to IPI that police are pressuring staff members at The Point. “Everyone is afraid,” the US-based journalist said.

A few days after his release, Saine was again called by police for questioning, this time regarding his citizenship. According to reports, he was forced to produce his national identity card, birth certificate, voter card and passport, as well as documentation proving his father’s ownership of a home in Banjul. This is the second time that Saine has been questioned over his citizenship; the first incident was in 1995.

The Point is no stranger to trouble. In December 2004, Deyda Hydara, Saine’s long-time friend and co-founder of The Point, was shot dead just days after he denounced two new media laws. As highlighted in IPI’s Justice Denied Campaign, the government has shown little interest in thoroughly investigating and prosecuting that crime.

IPI’s General Assembly, meeting in Nairobi in 2005, passed a resolution condemning Hydara’s killing and calling on the government to conduct a thorough investigation. Charges against one suspect were eventually dropped.