GPU Special Awards 2020
Fatou
Jagne-Senghore is a legal specialist and human rights advocate with more than
20 years’ experience, specialised in the African regional human rights system,
media regulation, broadcasting laws, digital rights and access to information.
Currently
working for Article19 as West Africa Director, she led campaign and advocacy
initiatives for more than a decade to expose the appalling human rights
situation of the Gambia before the African Commission on Human and Peoples
Rights (ACHPR) and other international human rights bodies during the former
regime.
Over the
years, Fatou Jagne-Senghore co-authored reports, publications and contributed
to setting up of programmes and initiatives to support persecuted journalists
and human rights defenders in Tunisia before the Jasmine revolution and for the
Gambia before the end of the repressive regime.
She has worked on policies, advising and providing technical support to
governments and regulators on the implementation of legislative reforms to foster
freedom of expression and access to information.
During the
former regime, Fatou Jagne-Senghore provided both sanctuary and livelihood to
Gambian journalists who fled to Senegal for exile. As champion of freedom of
expression, she stood and fought for the media and freedom of express, and amplified
the voice of journalists.
Fatou Jagne- Senghore received many distinctions
and awards for her work for freedom of expression. These include the National Order
of Merit by the President of France in April 2018 in recognition of
her human rights’ work especially in the Gambia. In 2019, she was named in
inaugural list of the100 Most
Influential African Women by Advance Media