Gambian trade unionists pardoned!

I've blogged before about the campaign to free the leaders of the Gambia Press Union – their NUJ – and on Friday we got the good news that they had been freed by Presidential pardon.

This was the result of a worldwide campaign in support of the GPU, led by the International Federation of Journalists, the International Trade Union Confederation, and Amnesty International.

Several Governments also assisted, with the UK and US Ambassadors in the Gambia attending the trials. The EU was on the point of sending a senior Swedish ex-Minister to the Gambia to use the leverage given by the EU's Cotonou Agreement to press the authoritarian Gambian Government. 

Here in the UK, the TUC, NUJ and Amnesty International UK demonstrated outside the Gambian High Commission, met with the FCO and the NUJ established a fighting fund to pay for legal costs. You can still donate, but safe in the knowledge that this has been one campaign that we won!

Owen Tudor