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On 16 December 2004, Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara was driving home through the outskirts of the capital, Banjul, with two colleagues. As he slowed to let another car pass, a gunman in the passenger seat of the passing car opened fire. Hydara died instantly. His colleagues were wounded, but survived.

Hydara's paper, The Point, was an independent publication with a history of standing up to the government. Only days before his murder the National Assembly had passed two items of legislation governing the media - the Criminal Code (Amendment) Bill 2004, and the Newspaper (Amendment) Bill 2004. The former criminalised defamation and imposed a minimum sentence of six months. The latter raised the cost of registration for newspapers and broadcasting organisations from 100,000 dalasis (US$3,800) to 500,000 (roughly US$19,000).

On 15 December, in a characteristically pugnacious column in The Point, Hydara wrote: "The...bill that was passed last night seeks to amend the Criminal Code providing for the criminalisation of speech. It does away with the option to fine and emphasises custodial sentences of one to three years for libel, sedition, false information... With this amendment, journalists and politicians are going to be targeted even for their opinions..."

This column was the latest in a catalogue of articles in the paper attacking the government's efforts to control the media. In 1992 and again in 1994 Hydara stated that he was willing to die for a free press in the Gambia. Making plain his opposition to the National Media Commission in August 2004, he wrote: "The government and supporters must know...that some of us would be proud to be gunned down or simply be killed".

As of October 2009, no-one has been arrested for Hydara's murder. Soon after it a businessman called Mahmoud Wally Hakim, who was known to have had disagreements with Hydara, was arrested and charged with possession of firearms, but the charges were later dropped.