OPINION
EXPOSING YAHYA JAMMEH AND HIS NEWSPAPER OBSERVER -PART TWO
BY AN OBSERVER INSIDER



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October 13, 2005
The sale of Observer was done in a secret way that many staffers were
caught by surprise. It was only one man who was in the picture at the
time, who is no other person other than Sheriff Bojang. Mr.Bojang was very
instrumental in the sale process, as he was hired as Mr.Best's agent in
The Gambia to effect the sale of Observer.

It was just one morning when Amadou Samba, accompanied by Sarriang Ceesay
stormed the Observer premises to announce that they have taken over the
famous Observer company. You make no mistake when you call it well planned
coup against the media in The Gambia. Amadou and Sarriang appeared like
gruella combatants who captured a country or a town. They meant business
when they walked into the Observer. Their first statement was "We have
bought the Observer and we solicits the cooperation of the paper's staff."

Theophilous George, the former Observer MD was evicted broad day light
from his office, as the combatants handed him with a terse sacking letter.
George who appeared unconvinced that he was fired, could be seen criss-
crossing between the reporters news room and the main hall of the paper.
At one point, he took a nap while sitting on the main hall amidst reports
of shocking dismissal.

A moment later Amadou emerged from the MD'S office and was introduced to
top staffers of the paper including this writer. I can vividly remember
what he told me and I quote"I read a lot about your writings. We expect
you people to involve in more developmental journalism and not other
wise."

Few minutes after Amadou's departure, George decided to formally bid fare
well to Observer staffers, as he acknowledged his sacking from the paper
he managed since the unceremonious deportation of its owner Kenneth Y
Best, a veteran Liberian journalist.

As indicated earlier, the two combatants seems to have a good reasons of
ambushing the Observer. While the sacking story of Mr.George was being put
together, news emerged that Observer News Editor Demba Ali Jawo was also
fired. Jawo is indeed a fearless and principled journalist to the core.
While he (Jawo) was editing Mr.George's sacking piece, he had his
dismissal letter in his possession. For some reasons, Jawo did not want to
disclose it at that hour, but shortly after he completed editing George's
piece, he announced his sacking as well. The entire Observer staffers were
completely shocked. As usual, we have no alternative but to jointly run
the sacking of the two big shots of the Observer.

Appeals launched on behalf of Jawo by his colleagues for Amadou to
reconsider his decision to reinstate the sacked journalist fell into deaf
ears, as Samba clearly states that he had little hands into what happened
to Jawo. He confirmed being a long time admirer of Jawo's journalistic
work, but could not reinstate him back to the Observer.

For Mr.George he later resorted to suing the Observer for unlawful
termination. The case was later settled out of court by litigants involved
in the said suit. It was reported that George was compensated with some
amount of money, which we are not comfortable disclosing at this hour. We
will get to that later on. From day one the two combatants stormed the
paper, everybody concluded that Observer's editorial independence was
gone. Both Samba and Ceesay are active supporters of President Jammeh and
have tried time and time to force journalists to dance to Jammeh's tunes
by compromising their style of reporting of political events in the West
African country.

When Sarriang was being interviewed by a senior editorial staff member of
the Observer, he demanded that let the reporter handed him the interview
piece after writing the story. He insisted that he wanted to see the
interview before its publication. The said reporter known for his
uncompromising stance against censorship and unethical conduct refused to
meet Sarriang's request as he told him right into his face that "We don't
engage in such unethical conduct here at the Observer. Interviewees cannot
influence our editorial decisions or decide the content of our news
reports." Sarriang shook his head and laughed. Little did the reporter
knows that Sarriang was hired to control people of his calibre. Days and
months later the said reporter was also fired because he was considered to
be too hot to work for such a new pro government Newspaper emerging in
Gambia's media evolution.

Sarriang's actions were dictated by Jammeh, as he always tell us that the
President said this and that and you need to be careful about your
reporting. Almost all the past MDS of Observer with the exception of
Mr.George and Mr.Best received orders from State House in Banjul. Anytime
they were harassed by Jammeh they resorted to venting their anger against
the local staff.

During Buba Baldeh's tenure as Observer MD, we were told that Baba Jobe
was given power of attorney by the President to oversee the paper. Buba
Baldeh called a local staffer in his office and showed him a list of
staffers who were lined up for firing. Baldeh said the decision to fire
these staffers were beyond his control. And it happened like that. He went
ahead to fire the said staffers.

Baba Jobe walked into the Observer anytime he wanted and always gave
orders to Buba to assign reporters to cover APRC functions. It is also
reported that Baba Jobe used to order containers filled with news prints
for the Observer. Many people were confused as to who was the real owner
of Observer due to Jobe and Jammeh's influence over the one time critical
and leading paper. But the reality is that Jammeh owns the Observer.

Our highly placed sources at the Ministry of Justice who effected the
transfer of ownership said Jammeh had hands in the paper. Our source who
one time volunteered to show the Observer sale file to this writer, who
was investigating the real owner(s) of Observer and the Kairaba Hotel
confirmed that Jammeh owns the two establishments. In fact records showned
to me suggested that some transfer of ownerships were effected after the
sale of Observer and the Kairaba Beach Hotel. Initially the Registrar of
Companies at the AG Chambers refused to show me the Observer and Kairaba
Beach Hotel files for fear of being fired. We respected such a decision in
view of Jammeh's dictatorial tendencies. But a loyal source within that
office later volunteered to spill the beans by showing me the said
Observer and the kairaba Beach Hotel files.

Copies of the cheques for the sale of the Observer and the Kairaba Beach
Hotel were attached in the said sale documents. As stated earlier, we just
don't want to go too far because of the respect we have for Mr.Best and
his family.
It is also important to note that prior to the sale of the Observer, there
was pending court case brought against the paper by government at the
time. The paper was sued for non payment of taxes which totalled to over
one million dalasis at the time. The Observer was confronted with
unfinished litigation and official harassment spearheaded by Jammeh and
his government. Mr.Best was likely to loose the Observer if had not taken
the decision to sell the paper. All indications suggested at the time that
the state was going to nationalise the Observer one day. They were just
waiting on the decision of the court to order the closure of the paper and
its subsequent sale to settle the debts it purportedly owed to government.
Mr.Best himself is aware of these facts.

At one point he appointed TGG Senghore as his board Chairman, while Adrew
Dacosta, a former manager at the defunct BICI Bank was hired as his
financial controller. Dacosta was not working prior to his appointment by
the Observer. Both folks tried to cut down Observer's expenditure in a bid
to revamp the declining paper, but failed. For some reasons, the paper was
not flourishing as it used to do in the early 90's. This was widely
attributable to the exorbitant salaries provided to its board members and
line managers. The paper was spending more money on its top staffers
excluding journalists. Journalists who ran th risked of being harassed,
jailed for days without trial or killed were never treated fairly. The
paper's management were only concerned about seeing the Newspaper on the
news stance the next morning and not the welfare of those brave men and
women proving the paper's content under risky situations.

Once Jammeh realises Observer's weaknesses, he decided to recruit his boy
boy Amadou Samba, as an undercover agent to buy the Observer. Samba did a
good job for him by penetrating Best's good friend Sheriff Bojang, who
cornered Best and informed him about Samba's interest in buying the paper.
What appeared to be Amadou's paper later emerged as Yahya Jammeh's
Newspaper. Look out for part three. The ALLGAMBIAN, your major source of
news. We are here to serve you.



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