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Momodou
Denmark
11823 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Jan 2010 : 18:33:26
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Editorial: Good-bye 2009, Welcome 2010 As we come three times weekly
The Daily News is grateful to the Gambian population and its esteemed readers both nationals and non-nationals, those residing in the country and abroad for their continuous support.
This support is in many folds; it is buying a copy of the paper on the days it comes out, reading our stories on our website, or placing an advertisement in the pages of the Daily News. We wish you all a blessed 2010.
As we flashback to the just ended 2009 during which we came out with our first edition - to be precise April 6th 2009, The Daily News since then continues coming out without a break. We give that credit to you our readers and advertisers. We are also very grateful to our printers, The Point Press for giving us all the support a young paper needs. Without all of you we would not be where we are today. Being the last edition in 2009, we re-affirm our commitment to continue publishing in the interest of the people and to have your support even more in 2010.
It is our pleasure to offer you a New Year present; that is an additional publication of the The Daily News. This paper shall henceforth be published three times per week, namely every Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, instead of the usual Mondays and Thursdays. This is an indication that we are one step closer to becoming a daily newspaper, depicting its real name.
The year 2009 has been a very challenging one, yet a successful year for us at the Daily News. Challenging in the sense that regularly keeping copies of our paper on the newsstands is a daunting task, coupled with both limited human and material resources at our disposal, technical tools, such as printers, enough computers just to mention but a few. Some of these we know are common but for beginners like us bear the brunt.
However, it has been successful in a way in the sense that we are able to make it to this date. We are able to be consistent in the market – fulfilling the promise we made to the public. The contents of the paper and all that it takes to be a vibrant and independent newspaper have had approval over time as acknowledged officially by the British High Commissioner, as well as other un-official acknowledgements we received.
At this juncture, I would like to deviate a bit to point out that the year 2009 in general has not gone that easy for the media in The Gambia. The awful and unpleasant days of our six journalists in jail are still fresh in our minds – going through very difficult moments of trial, a very speedy trial, unprecedented. They would still have been in prison serving their two year jail term, had the President not used his power of forgiveness. We at the Daily News, salute President Jammeh for that decision. In the same vein we urge him to have a second thought about the harsh Media Laws and other laws muzzling free speech. This we believe is the way to solve a problem by, as it were, giving a proper diagnosis of the disease. Here our problem is not the journalists per say but rather our media laws, and the inalienable rights of the people to speak out on matters affecting them without fear of falling victim of the law.
To give an insight of the matter, we have seen the arrest of the Editor/Publisher and Proprietor of Today newspaper, Mr. Abdul Hamid Adiaomoh in June. He was arrested and arraigned before the Kanifing Magistrates’ court, for what the state termed to be false publication. He was convicted and sentenced. Also the Managing Editor of the Point Newspaper, Pap Saine’s nationality was questioned at another court. These events among others not mentioned were not far in between, with that of the six journalists. Infact in some cases they were juxtaposed. Is this not an evidence of an un-easy year for us in the media?
As we enter a brand new year, we hope the trend would change positively for the media in the coming 12 months, and beyond.
Here we equally urge fellow journalists to be very objective and report only in the interest of the people – by creating a discourse for all that is in the public domain and interest.
This is by all means living up to the expectation that our profession requires, especially in accordance with the rights and obligations . To be precise section 207 mandates us to hold our government accountable to the people. Also section 25 guarantees the freedom of press and speech.
By doing this, we do not anticipate any antagonism from government where the media tries to act just in line with section 207, by scrutinizing them. Wish you all a happy 2010.
Quote: "The yearning of people for the truth and context will never be satisfied so long as journalists are targeted and subjected to violence and governments refuse to break the chains of media control."
-- Aidan White, General Secretary IFJ.
Source: Daily News
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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