Multi-million dalasis boost for Senegalese media
May 28, 2007
By Pape Noel Fall, From Dakar
The
Senegalese Prime Minister, Macky Sall, yesterday laid the
foundation stone for a Press House for the Senegalese media.
The Press House will cost five billion CFA (about two
hundred and sixty million dalasis) to complete.
It is a
six-storey building to be equipped with the latest
Information Technology gadgets. The building will take 18
months to complete, and it will be built in the former City
of the Police in front of the sea in Medina. In all, the
Press House will cost the Senegalese government billion
billion and 400 million CFA (Two hundred and eighty-one
million dalasis).
Mr Sall
said: "I am very happy to be here today on behalf of his
Excellency Maitre Abdoulaye Wade. This project is an
important one, which shows the vision of President Wade for
the press of his country. This is progress and a path to
consolidate and to strengthen press freedom in Senegal."
He
added: "Our relations are from time to time very difficult
with media practitioners but a strong press is a need for a
vibrant democracy. That’s why we want in our country a free
and political press in order to educate people".
The
Senegalese Prime Minister emphasised that his wish was to
improve the relationship between the state and press
fraternity. "I hope that this infrastructure will be an
important gathering for fruitful exchange between
journalists and communication professionals in Africa," he
declared.
Mr Sall
traced Maitre Wade’s good relationship with the press to his
days as the leader of the Senegalese opposition, saying that
he set up a newspaper called Le Democrate, Le Citoyen,
Takussan and in 1988 Sopi when he was the leader of the
Senegalese opposition.
For his
part, the Information Minister, Dr Bacar Dia, commended
President Abdoulaye Wade for his gesture. "This building
will make our press more modern, free and independent," he
said.
On
behalf of the Senegalese press proprietors, Sidy Lamine
Niasse, the chairman of Walfadjri Group, thanked President
Wade for the gesture and added that the press is not a
mouthpiece of the opposition, as it is commonly misconstrued
by the ruling party.
Senegal’s independent media receive every year the sum of
twenty-one million dalasis from the government, but this has
even been increased since Wade came to power in 2001. It is
now 400 million CFA, not 100 million CFA.
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