The following article is from todays issue of Daily Observer on
http://www.gambianet.com
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Amadou Samba buys Daily Observer
Sarriang Ceesay is new MD
by Pa Nderry Mbai

The Observer Company (Gambia) Limited, publisher of the Daily
Observer newspaper has been sold.
 According to a letter from the former proprietor, Kenneth Y. Best,
to the staff, the company has been sold to Amadou A. Samba, a
prominent Gambian entrepreneur and lawyer. Mr Best, a
veteran Liberian journalist fled his war torn country Liberia in 1991
and subsequently sought refuge in The Gambia in the same year.
He established the Daily Observer on 11 May 1992 but was
unceremoniously deported to Liberia on 30 October, 1994, by the
then military junta.

In his letter dated 10 May 1999, announcing the sale of the
Observer Company to Mr Samba, Mr Best expressed the hope that
the paper would maintain the high professional standards for which
it is renowned and work diligently for the political, social and
economic development of The Gambia and Africa. He expressed
thanks and gratitude to the entire staff for the sacrificial services
rendered the Company over the past years and urged the paper’s
"stalwart cadre of journalists to continue the struggle for press
freedom, democracy, social and economic justice and good
governance in The Gambia and all Africa." He also thanked the
entire Gambian public for their continued support and patronage.
Meanwhile, Sarriang KH Ceesay, a former Director General of the
Customs and Excise Department, has been appointed the new
Managing Director of the Observer Company.
 In an interview with this reporter yesterday, Mr Ceesay said the
new management is commitment to maintaining the editorial
independence of the paper.

"We will strive to see that the paper maintains its editorial
independence. It should report objectively and make balanced
reporting. We will seek to promote transparency in reporting to
emphasize our journalists investigate the facts thoroughly," he
explained. He said their plans are to make the Observer more
successful for the benefit of the nation and the people who
work in the paper. Reacting to the new developments, Observer
Editor-in-Chief Baba Galleh Jallow said the Editorial Board
welcomes the fact that the company is now owned by a Gambian
as this would lay to rest erroneous claims that the paper is being
controlled by foreign elements.

He however pointed out that they are concerned that there should
be no interference with the paper’s editorial policy. "We have told
the new management that we hope there would be no interference
in the paper’s independent editorial policy and they have assured
us that there would be no such interference," he said. News editor
Demba Jawo, for his part, said he did not mind the change of
ownership but stressed that "what concerns us is the maintenance
of the paper’s editorial independence." Meanwhile, the acting
Managing Director, Theophilus George is presently out of the
country.