Cherno, thanks for the lecture on hacks, what constitutes a libellous act and African journalism. however, you didn't say why it is important for the editorial board of the Indepedent to risk clampdown for such a frivolous and trivial story about Jammeh's private life. which is more important the epoch making gathering of the MFDC and the Senegalese gov't in Banjul and Jammeh's "third wife"? isn't the Independent just trying to sell more papers by devoting it's front paper to a gossipy trivial issue like Jammeh's "third wife" which the Gambian populace would prefer over tedium gatherings aforementioned? the other papers did get tipped about this story but held their nose since when it comes to it, the story was not worth the trouble that the Independence is facing right now. Again I repeat: is Jammeh not entitled to the privacy that news hounds enjoy? isn't this just another bad example of your "Comrades-In-Arms" subtly changing the journalist ethics of "getting it right" to "getting it first"? Where is your sense of fairness? I contend thus that: stories like Jammeh's "third wife" is only fit for the back pages and ONLY if he decides to release a statement about it. Fit for publication ONLY in what I would I call "The Announcement Section." Frivolous chit chats like Jammeh's "third wife" are only fit for the arena of cocktail rumour mongering, gossips, snipes and "attaya vous" not in a very good paper like the Independent. Let the Independent tackle quality issues (no matter how mundane) that affect the daily lives of The People and not degenerate into the standards of Tabloid sententious gung-ho. That should be the message forthcoming from comrades like you. Not the lecture on how difficult it is to run a paper in Africa, which is not the issue in this case of The Indepedent and Jammeh's "third wife." Good Morning. Hamjatta Kanteh hkanteh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------