“Gambia’s private media face severe restrictions, with radio stations and newspapers having to pay large licence fees.

A commission with wide-ranging powers, from issuing licences to jailing journalists, was set up under a 2002 media law. It was seen by critics as a threat to press freedom.

Further legislation introduced in late 2004 provided jail terms for journalists found guilty of libel or sedition. Deyda Hydara, one of the press law’s leading critics and the editor of private newspaper The Point, was shot dead days after the law was passed.

“There is an absolute intolerance of any form of criticism,” media rights organisation Reporters Without Borders said in its 2008 report.

State-run Radio Gambia broadcasts tightly-controlled news, which is also relayed by private radio stations. Radio France Internationale is available via an FM relay.

The government operates the only national television station”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1032156.stm

it suggests that the country is stable but this stability has not been translated into prosperity. if this is the case then that is the hidden reason behind restricting freedom of media/expression in Gambia? What makes the Gambian government so much sensitive in terms of media freedom?

I would also like to ask Cth same question as asked by FijiBoot “What is preventing the association from highlighting or, better still, condemning whats going on in the Gambia?”