By Amadou Jadama
Yusupha Darboe, one of the presenters of the popular Star FM Mandinka newspaper review, has claimed that he received a death threat from a so-far unidentified listener who called him to threaten him.
According to Mr Darboe who walked into the offices of The Standard with his CEO Alpha Karaga, the incident happened on Thursday around 7 PM when he received a call from someone who identified himself with a name he could not remember but gave his address as Kotu Quarry. Darboe said the caller made reference to a story carried by The Standard titled ‘African lawyers vow to bring Jammeh to justice in Ghana’ which he read on air that afternoon.
“The caller angrily told me that all what I was reading was a lie and one day they will come after me,” he explained. Darboe said he tried to explain to the caller that he was merely reading a story written by a newspaper but the caller insisted he did not care, further saying that they know here he, Darboe, lives and one day they will come for him.
The CEO of Star FM, Alpha Karaga said this is the second time his staff received such a threat, recalling that Alhagie Sarjo Barrow too received similar threats last year.
According to him, he reported the matter to serious Crime Unit at Police Headquarters in Banjul and Brikama police station as well as the Police Spokesperson.
Mr Karaga condemned the threats, saying Star FM Radio is not a political radio and is not associated with any political party.
“The news items are reviewed before being presented on air. They are from newspapers and not written by us. People should not have grudges against the media even though we cannot satisfy all Gambians, and we try as much as possible to make sure that all the news are factual and balance,” he said.
CEO Karaga finally called on Government to help and protect the media, adding that this incident will never deter them from doing their work as they owe it to the people to give them reliable information.
