Editorial,

About the early hours of Wednesday morning, this paper had a call from a gentle man who turned out to be Alieu Badara Gye, the author of one of the letters on this edition, on the far right corner of this page. He was only wondering why the Daily Observer was not responding to a statement he read with 'disbelief' on one of the daily papers in the country.

In response, Badara was told that some issues raised are better ignored to avoid giving them unnecessary publicity, thereby legitimizing their contents. But he insisted that he was going to send in his personal view, as published today. Our patriotic contributor raised very salient points in his wonderfully written piece, pushing him to ask the question: 'Are some newspapers or journalists really in for the interest of the country or against it?

One issue raised by our contributor which is worth laying emphasis on more is the failure of the Gambian media to realise that the press' role in national development has since changed from being purely antagonistic to being genuine partner. The lesson of the Ghana 8 killing is still fresh. We expect that people should have learnt from it. Gambia is for every Gambian, not for an individual. Therefore portraying a bad image of it does not do any good to anybody. We are supposed to defend the country and not counter its progress.

That idea of re-branding Africa which calls for the African media to speak for itself under no duress or with no ulterior motive is here to stay. Africans are tired of indulging in proxy wars that bring nothing but discomfort, disillusionment and all sorts of negative feelings for its innocent people and only egotistic gains for just a negligible fraction of society. Which international law says that countries should be ostracized for implementing their laws to the full, anyway?

The fact remains that this country, The Gambia, is not for sale. And God willing, we shall prevail in our endeavours, no matter what.