Delayed Democracy:How Press Freedom Collapsed in Gambia: A Proposition for Research in the Gambian Journalism History 1965-2013

Alagi Yorro Jallow was the co-proprietor and managing editor of the banned Independent, a newspaper he founded in the West African state of The Gambia. In 1999, he served as a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Since his journalism career began in 1987, Jallow has also worked as a correspondent for the International Press Institute and as a consultant to the London based free-expression organization, Article 19. At the Independent, Jallow became known for his editorials exposing the repressive government of President Yayha Jammeh, who took over in 1994. Jallow is twice winner, in 2000 and 2004, of the prestigious Hellman Hammet award administered by Human Rights Watch for persecuted writers. Jallow became the first Gambian journalist to receive this prestigious award. In 2003, he was a runner-up for the World Association of Newspapers’ Golden Pen Award. In 2005, Jallow received the International Press Freedom Award presented by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression ( CJFE) for “his uncompromising and fearless efforts to promote press freedom in The Gambia, despite numerous obstacles.” In 2007 he was the first Gambian to become a Nieman Fellow at the prestigious Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Jallow also became an Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a program in public policy and management, and he was awarded a Master of Public Administration by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., where he researched and wrote “The Gambia Media and Militocracy under Jammeh, 1994-2012.” Jallow also served as consultant for the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance for two years. Jallow’s research interests include West Africa, African media studies, democratic governance, human rights violations, asylum and immigration, and other social justice issues as well as Pan-Africanism. Jallow is a lecturer at the Department of General Management, Martin de Tours School of Management and Economics, at the prestigious Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand.