Mr Saine told The Standard that while handing over the award to him at the paper’s offices in Lusaka last week, Likezo Kayonga, the deputy managing director of the The Post thanked him for accepting the invitation and said the two papers have a shared vision and work in solidarity for press freedom.
He said Fred M’Membe, the editor and managing director of the paper, himself a World Press Freedom Hero, said African journalists should be their brothers’ keepers.
“I and Pap Saine have the same vision for press freedom, fighting injustice and representing the voice of the voiceless,” Mr M’Membe said.
In response, Mr Saine said: “I am humbled and delighted to receive a rousing welcome from the management and staff of The Post and to receive an award from one of the vibrant and leading newspapers in southern Africa.”
The Gambian journalist appealed to all African journalists to support each other.
Prior to his Zambian visit, Mr Saine was in South Africa where the International Press Institute, IPI, a Vienna-based global journalists network, launched a book dedicated to Mr Saine and nine other African Press Freedom Heroes, including Kenneth Best, the founder of the Daily Observer in The Gambia and Liberia, for their promotion of ethical journalism, press freedom and human rights in society. Pap Saine was made a World Press Freedom Hero in 2010 by the IPI.
Mr Saine, a veteran Reuters correspondent, thanked IPI and The Post for the solidarity they had shown him and for their fortitude and objective judgment of the state of affairs of journalism in the world.
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