Mr Lamin Fatty, former Independent’s reporter standing trial for allegedly publishing and broadcasting false information, yesterday testified in the case before Magistrate Buba Jawo of the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court.

Mr fatty began by saying that he lived at Churchill’s Town. He said he had worked for The Independent since 2001, adding that he is aware of the charge of false publication against him since 12th June 2006. He said he was brought to court on the 12th June 2006 when the charge sheet was read to him, indicating that he was standing trial for false publication. He said he was not told why he was arrested on 10th April 2006. He added that he was detained at the NIA in Banjul, noting that from 10th April 2006 to 12th June 2006, he did not know why he was arrested.

Further testifying, Mr Fatty said he had been reporting for The Independent until 28th March 2006, when the paper’s office was sealed off by the police. Explaining the nature of his work, he said he gathered news as a reporter and submitted stories to the editor, adding that the editor is responsible for all publications. He said he did not publish The Independent’s issue of 24th – 26th March 2006 but stated that he saw his by-line against the lead story of the said publication, noting that some facts about the said story were indeed reported by him but not all. He said that a segment of the story was in fact a summarised version of a government press release. This, he added, did not come under the caption of his story, which read “An Attempted Foiled Coup.” He said the lead story of the publication was captioned “23 coup plotters arrested.” He said the story was published by The Independent media company Limited whose Editor-in-Chief was Musa Saidykhan while the printer was Eagle Printing Service. He denied
writing any rejoinder nor ever wrote that Samba Bah, whom he said he did not know in person, was arrested. He at length said that he did not know where Musa Saidykhan was.

Under cross-examination by Prosecutor 1748 Mballow, Mr Fatty said that though he was not issued with any appointment letter by The Independent he was under the company’s employ because he had been issued with an ID card by the management. He said he was a freelance journalist for The Independent newspaper. He said he did not sign voluntary and cautionary statements at the Major Crime Unit, adding that the date on the voluntary statement was 11th May 2006. He maintained that he became aware of the charge against him on 12th June 2006 and that he was truthful to the court. He said the government press release was the source of the lead story on the publication. He maintained that he did not write some part of the lead story and that he did not publish the whole lead story. He said the editor’s role is to edit and construct captions as well as to update stories. He said it was not always the case that reporters sit near the editor when their stories are being edited. He said it is not correct that it is part of
journalists’ work ethics to always be by the editors while their stories are being edited. He responded that failure to do so could not therefore amount to violation of journalists’ ethics.

He replied that the editor’s note was written as an apology on the rejoinder, adding that the editor’s note represents the view of the paper.

At that juncture, Lawyer Camara, the defence counsel, applied to address the court. The application was granted before the magistrate adjourned the case to the 22nd May, 2007, for the address.