Saturday December 17, 2005
Franklyn Bunting-Davies, former editor of the indepndent newspaper, New Shaft is dead. He died yesterday after a long illness.
The one time president of the Sierra Leone Association Journalists was one of the fearless journalists who utilised his pen and forced the the APC President, Joseph Saidu Momoh to introduce the Multi-party politics in Sierra Leone.
However, he transformed himself from hero to villain when he decided to close down his own newspaper to become the editor of the ruling SLPP mouthpiece, UNITY. Why a once-powerful and radical newspaper editor would take such a regretable decision remains a big mystery.
Past and present editors of that newspaper have always complained about the non-challant attitude and underfunding of the paper by its proprietors ,which has rendered it a non-competitor in the news market.
However , Sierra Leoneans who appreciated his efforts while he ran his own newspaper , will miss Franklyn Bunting Davies, one of the boldest voices ever in Sierra Leone journalism.
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