By Our Banjul Bureau Chief Ansumana Jammeh

Banjul:8/30/08-Foroyaa's Wednesday Editorial titled "FOROYA ON THE SPOT LIGHT.” was meant to react to the Freedom Newspaper recent lead story, in which we reported about the paper’s late payment of July Freelance wages. The two faces of the paper were full of booming sounds. The editorial stated  that any freelance reporter who goes to another Paper to claim that he or she did receive his income piecemeal from Foroyaa in July has a case. This is a clear indication of the bureaucratic nature of the paper and its harsh response to the Freedom Newspaper by woefully failing to tell the  management whole truth about the saga.

    Most of the Editors at Foroyaa are paid, but very little compare to what other Newspapers paid their Editors in the country. They are not nourished to the level of telling the whole truth about Jammeh's administration. We at Freedom are not saying that the proprietor, Halifa Sallah, received a share of any profit, but his car is fueled by the paper's fund and the driver who drive him is paid out of Foroyaa's income. We refute claims that he is not a signatory to Foroyaa's account. We have evidence to that effect to back up our arguments.

      The retention of old guards without elevating the young energetic ones produce deadlock at Foroyaa. We were shock to learn that there was  no English teacher hired to give tutoring to reporters on a one to one basics to improve competence. We are aware of the fact that journalists in the Gambia particularly at Foroyaa depends on their sweat to attain capacity building in Tertiary Institutions around the country, but not from Foroyaa's fund.

Management of the paper spend most of the paper's income into politics, without considering the views of those who sweat for it. This is an indication that  Editor Sam Sarr, Halifa and others are not better than Yahya Jammeh, since they are using poor reporters for cheap labor. They are also not accountable, because Sam Sarr’s  failure to comment on the allegations brought against him and Foroyaa, signals that he Sam has something to hide.

Foroyaa should also consider giving transport fares to its reporters to enable them do their job effectively. These poor reporters used their own money to cover stories for the paper. Halifa and Sam can prove us wrong if they feel that what we reported here is erroneous.

We urge the proud Managing Editor of Foroyaa Mr.Sam Sarr, to know that there cannot be press freedom, if journalists continued to survive under the condition of fear, poverty and corruption. Therefore,  issues affecting the livelihood of journalists should not be taken lightly, as if there is no cause for concern.

   We humbly describe  the plight of Foroyaa reporters as precarious; that even Editors are bitterly complaining about the deadlock at Foryaa. This is the true state of affairs at Foroyaa. The paper's owners should be bold enough to admit its failures. Foroyaa has failed young Gambians aspiring to be journalists. The days of cheap labor are over. Please pay decent wages to our hardworking reporters. They deserve a better living.

   We take the opportunity to advise the proprietor Halifa Sallah, to address the source of  the problem. He should also  address the demands of reporters, together  with the conditions of Editors. We know that the Paper is a full fledge commercial paper.

 Finally, the belligerents negotiated agreements made between reporters and Editor, Sam Sarr, was done in bad faith; that Mr.Sarr had no intention of honoring the demands made by all the journalists at Foroyaa. Foroyaa should be Foroyaa enough to be sensitive to the plight of its workers-most importantly poor freelance journalists.