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Tag: The Gambia

A real-world lesson in the value of press freedom

A real-world lesson in the value of press freedom

Edward Fitzpatrick, RWU director of media and public relations, a New England First Amendment Coalition and Common Cause Rhode Island board member, and a former Providence Journal columnist: Assuming he was about to die, he handed the change from his bus fare to the woman sitting next to him. “Just take it,” he told her. “Just pray for me – pray for me.” As an eager young journalist, he’d been smashed with rifle butts and sliced with bayonets for daring…

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U.S. must remain beacon as world jails more journalists

U.S. must remain beacon as world jails more journalists

Edward Fitzpatrick, RWU director of media and public relations, a New England First Amendment Coalition and Common Cause Rhode Island board member, and a former Providence Journal columnist: The bayonet scar on Omar Bah’s left hand reminds him of the dangers faced by journalists worldwide. The scar reminds him of what dictators and other authoritarian leaders think of a free press. The scar reminds him of how crucial it is for the United States to stand as a beacon of press…

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RI can help build a free press in The Gambia

RI can help build a free press in The Gambia

Omar Bah, founder and executive director of the Refugee Dream Center, in Providence, who earned a master’s degree in public administration from RWU in 2014: I only have to look at the bayonet scar on my left hand to remember how Gambian President Yahya Jammeh treats a free press: The dictator’s soldiers beat, kicked and tortured me when I attempted to cover a secret trial in The Gambia, my native country. And I barely escaped with my life, fleeing the…

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