Six Gambian journalists sentenced last month to two years in prison after publishing comments criticising President Yahya Jammeh have been pardoned. President Jammeh did not offer any explanation for the sudden release of the journalists.
The six were taken to court after their publications carried a statement from the Gambia Press Union which attacked remarks made by the president about the murder of a prominent journalist in 2004. President Jammeh, who has ruled the west African country since taking power in a bloodless coup in 1994, had warned the media shortly before the journalists' arrest against tarnishing Gambia's image.
The decision to jail the journalists was widely criticised by press freedom watchdogs in the European Union and the African Union.
The Gambia's President Jammeh by Guillaume Colin (flickr)
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