Two More Gambian Radio Stations Shut Down

BANJUL, Gambia, Jan 3 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Jan, 2017 ) - Two more private Gambian radio stations have been ordered off air for unspecified reasons, staff said Monday, after a first station was shut down at the weekend amid a political standoff in the west African nation.

On Sunday popular station Teranga FM, whose manager had previously been charged for sharing a provocative photo of President Yahya Jammeh, was ordered to stop broadcasting by national security agents.

On Monday two other stations, Hilltop Radio and Afri Radio, had also stopped broadcasting, according to an AFP correspondent.

Hilltop Radio chief Basiru Darboe said his seven-year-old station was shut down by three operatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

"Three people who identified themselves as staff of the National Intelligence Agency came to the radio station on Sunday around 4 pm and asked me to stop transmission," he told AFP. They declined to give a reason, saying only that they had been ordered to tell him to stop transmission.

A source at Afri Radio said the station was also ordered to stop transmission by NIA agents without explanation, but gave no further details.