By Tony Bee, Sydney, Australia.
Honestly speaking, to manage a newspaper for 10 years is not an easy task. It’s a real sacrifice, especially online where many African advertisers do not normally show up, particularly Sierra Leoneans who do not know much about the wonderful role of the media.
Therefore, Mr. Gibril Gbanabome Koroma, the CEO of the Patriotic Vanguard is extremely worthy of praise. Like other newspaper publishers who spend their valuable time day in and day out making news available without much support from others, he is a real hero.
Many Sierra Leoneans do not know that the media can easily make or break them within the twinkling of an eye. For example, the media can make someone become a president, minister, director or permanent secretary overnight. It can also make someone lose their job or lose an election rather quickly. But this is only well known in the western world, which is why they have very high respect for the media.
My association with the Patriotic Vanguard goes way back in time because the CEO and publisher of this widely read newspaper Mr. Gibril Gbanabome Koroma was one of my senior editors in Freetown when I was just a cub reporter trying to find my way in a new profession (Journalism). That was in the mid-90s.
When Mr.Gibril Gbanabome Koroma (Orsoko) established the PV newspaper in Canada in 2005 he went all out to locate me in Australia. Many Sierra Leonean journalists were forced into exile by the then SLPP Kabbah government and I was one of them. Gibril, himself in exile in Canada, brought most of us together in his newspaper. He insisted that we should continue writing while going about our business in our different foreign lands. And we gladly did.
We thank God for his guidance and protection to allow us to be alive and kicking and to be able to tell our different stories to the world and to tell stories of our country different from what was normally found on the BBC and other foreign media.
The Patriotic Vanguard Newspaper was one of the main media outlets on the internet for many Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone because by then (2005) there were not many Sierra Leonean newspapers online. In fact by then the world of social media was a bit foreign to the ears of many Sierra Leoneans. In view of that the Patriotic Vanguard newspaper was a meeting point for many Sierra Leoneans. It was also a lost and found connecting centre for families, relatives and friends from all over the world through its famous online forum.
The Patriotic Vanguard played a great role during the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections that brought the Ernest Bai Koroma APC government to power and during the 2012 election too. It was one of the main political debating centres for Sierra Leoneans all over the world.
I can go on and on, but let me stop here.
Viva Patriotic Vanguard!
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