{"id":58720,"date":"2014-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/gambian-journalist-uri-alumnus-to-talk-about-mistreatment-of-reporters-in-lecture-at-university\/"},"modified":"2014-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T00:00:00","slug":"gambian-journalist-uri-alumnus-to-talk-about-mistreatment-of-reporters-in-lecture-at-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/03\/gambian-journalist-uri-alumnus-to-talk-about-mistreatment-of-reporters-in-lecture-at-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambian journalist, 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus to talk about mistreatment of reporters in lecture at University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tOmar Bah forced to flee West African country for writings critical of dictatorship<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 March 6, 2014 \u2014 A free press is the cornerstone of democracy. Not so in Gambia, where journalists are tortured and even killed for writing about the country\u2019s erratic president.<\/p>\n


\nNo one knows this better than Omar Bah, 34, a Gambian newspaper reporter forced to flee his homeland after the country\u2019s security officials targeted him \u2014 on TV, no less \u2014 as a \u201cwanted\u201d man.<\/p>\n


\nNow safely living in Providence, Bah \u201910 will talk about his ordeal on Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in the Agnes Doody Auditorium at Swan Hall, 60 Upper College Road on the Kingston campus, for the 2014 Christiane Amanpour Lecture. The talk is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI plan to talk about my beliefs in freedom and the role of journalism in achieving that,\u201d he says. \u201cComing to America was being reborn, giving me a second life.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBah was a young, ambitious reporter in the tiny West African country, considered one of the most repressive on the continent, when henchmen for the country\u2019s dictator, Yahya Jammeh, threatened him for writing stories about government atrocities that included torture, murders, anti-gay activities, and political oppression. Bah was feeding the stories secretly to a website overseas called the Freedom Newspaper, and the government discovered the articles after hacking the site.<\/p>\n


\nFearing for his life, Bah fled to neighboring Senegal, leaving behind his wife of two months. From there, he went to Ghana, where the Media Foundation for West Africa helped him resettle in the United States in 2007. Today, he lives in Providence with his wife, also resettled, and two American-born sons.<\/p>\n


\nHis life now is all about helping other Gambians and refugees. Bah took classes at 溏心vlog免费B站\u201ds Feinstein Providence Campus and graduated from the University in 2010 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in communication studies and political science. He will receive a master\u2019s degree in public administration from Roger Williams University in May. <\/p>\n


\nWith fellow refugees, he recently founded the Center for Refugee Advocacy and Support, a Rhode Island-based refugee advocacy group. He also represents Rhode Island at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Congress that meets annually in Washington.<\/p>\n


\nJournalism is still his passion. He is co-founder of American Street News<\/a>, an online news website that reports about the Gambian government, criticized by human rights groups for its torture, jailing of journalists, and rigging of elections. \u201cThe site is reporting on issues, with a focus on Gambia,\u201d he says. \u201cIt also gives people back home a way to express themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nBah is also author of \u201cAfrica\u2019s Hell on Earth: The Ordeal of an African Journalist,\u201d a memoir about his escape from Gambia. The book\u2019s title refers to the nickname of the infamous Gambian prisons.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cMy message to all refugees and immigrants, and to all those who believe in freedom, is: make use of the opportunities you have here,\u201d says Bah. \u201cDo not take the abundance here for granted. Serve your community. Remember that there are millions who are not here, who remain in the camps or in desperate situations without hope of a better future. Here, there is hope.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe Christiane Amanpour Lecture is named for the 1983 溏心vlog免费B站 alumna and 1995 honorary degree recipient who is the chief international correspondent for CNN International. She is also the anchor of Amanpour, a nightly foreign affairs program on CNN International.<\/p>\n


\nThe annual speaker series, in its 6th year, helps the University bring well-respected journalists to campus. The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Journalism and the Harrington School of Communication and Media.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: Omar Bah \u201910, a Gambian journalist who is delivering the annual Christiane Amanpour Lecture at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in the Agnes Doody Auditorium at Swan Hall, on the Kingston campus. Photo courtesy of Omar Bah.\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Omar Bah forced to flee West African country for writings critical of dictatorship KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 March 6, 2014 \u2014 A free press is the cornerstone of democracy. Not so in Gambia, where journalists are tortured and even killed for writing about the country\u2019s erratic president. No one knows this better than Omar Bah, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}