By Amin Kef (Ranger)
The Guild of Newspaper Editors (GoNE) has shown appreciation to Mercury International by awarding the company for its outstanding support, over the years, to the growth and development of the print media in Sierra Leone. The demonstration of appreciation and gratitude was done on the 11th January, 2023 at the company’s Head Office.
Chairman of the Guild of Newspaper Editors, Theo Harding, commended Mercury International on behalf of his colleagues for the support the company has been rendering to them.
He continued by narrating the parable in the Bible of the ten lepers who got healed by Jesus, but only one returned to say thanks stating how they don’t want to be the nine who were not grateful and how that is the reason why they are showing their appreciation.
Theo Harding continued that the Company has been assisting them since 2010, as his memory could recall, and how it has been there for them through thick and thin.
According to him, during Ebola when the corridors of sponsorship were shut, they got support from only Mercury International furthering that, when the COVID-19 pandemic break out it continued and even at this present moment of economic hardship the company is still giving support.
Theo Harding stated how if not for Mercury International most newspapers would have been closed by now underscoring that even though there are other sponsors, however, Mercury is the biggest, in terms of giving adverts and sponsorship.
On his part, the Managing Editor of “Teacher Lemp Lemp” , who also doubles as the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, expressed profound gratitude to the Management of Mercury International for their continued support and prayed that the working relationship between them and the company will rewarding and fruitful.
After receiving the Award, the Managing Director of Mercury International, Martin Michael, disclosed that it is very unusual for people to visit them just to say thank you further maintaining that they have received many awards that they appreciate because they are genuine and how this is one such Awards.
He said they have been through hard times together but they were still here to work together to survive, giving assurance that they will still be there.
He expressed the view that the economic situation in the country, especially with the depreciation of the Leone to the Dollar, is posing a great challenge to their businesses.
Martin revealed that most of the equipment and materials they use are purchased out of the country and that the prices of those goods have doubled and in some case even tripled.
The Managing Director stated that he is aware of the fact that their relationship in terms of consideration has been stagnant for few years, asserting that he owe all of them reconsideration.
He added that they will see how they will be able to balance that with their expenses furthering how he also owes a commitment to the Welfare Fund, which he has not honoured yet.
He disclosed how they recruited a lot of journalists for their radio station but not from the Print Media. He further disclosed that they are waiting on the economy to be stable, and how they are hoping to expand in the field working with all of them.
Martin Michael also assured that they will try to find ways and means to ensure the relationship between them and the media stays alive as well as become commercially viable for them. According to him, that is the issue.
The Public Relations Officer of the company, who directly deals with the media, Alhaji Komba, encouraged the media practitioners to continue to promote their business as they continue to maintain the cordial relationship, furthering that whenever he puts the case of the Media to the Managing Director the latter always shows concern.
He promised that they will be more prudent in 2023 than the previous years.
