MONDAY JULY 22, 2013 \u2013<\/b> Members of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) paid shimmering tributes to their fallen colleague, Mr. Jon Z. Foray<\/b> at a condolence signing ceremony organized by SLAJ at the Harry Yansaneh Memorial Hall in Freetown. The ceremony was also graced by the Foray family led by the proprietor of the Democrat<\/i><\/b> newspaper, Pious Foray, former SLAJ President Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, as well as well-wishers and family friends including former Education Minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie and former National Ombudsman, Mr. Francis Gabiddon.<\/p>\n
The ceremony was officiated by Rev. Rex Johnson of the Believers Broadcasting Network (BBN).<\/p>\n
Mr. Foray died on Monday July 15, 2013 after a long illness. He had worked with the New Citizen<\/i><\/b> and We Yone<\/i><\/b> newspapers, and until his death with the Democrat<\/i><\/b> newspaper. He was born in September 1957 and died at the age of almost 56 years.<\/p>\n
In his \u2018declaration of purpose\u2019 statement, SLAJ President Kelvin Lewis described the late man as a \u201cvery good friend\u201d who entered the field of journalism in the 1980s. \u201cWe are here to honour a colleague who had practiced journalism for almost three decades,\u201d stated the SLAJ President. \u201cHe was a man who knew no other profession than journalism; so we are here in the journalism fraternity to express our sorrow and sympathy with the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his tribute, former Information and Communications Minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo \u2013 who was speaking both as founder of the New Citizen<\/i><\/b> newspaper (which the late man had worked with) and as a family friend \u2013 said Mr. Foray could be remembered for \u201cdisseminating the truth fearlessly\u201d and as \u201cone who fought for freedom of expression\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first knew him while he was a pupil at the St. Andrew\u2019s Secondary School in Bo where I was serving as a senior teacher,\u201d recalled Mr. Kargbo, a former President of SLAJ. \u201cWhen we established the Tablet<\/i><\/b> newspaper, Jon Foray was our Bo correspondent. He was a great writer and a fearless one at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kargbo said the late journalist was a \u2018Prince\u2019 who came from a chieftaincy house in the Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone, and that during his time as a journalist, he wrote several articles for the We Yone<\/i><\/b> newspaper. \u201cBeing very close to the Foray family for decades, and also being Jon Foray\u2019s former teacher and editor, I can vouch for his honesty and respect for the tenets of journalism. He was a man that was always satisfied to be what he was,\u201d Mr. Kargbo concluded.<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of We Yone<\/i><\/b> newspaper, Editor Cornelius Deavaux reminded colleagues and the bereaved family \u201cnot to mourn as people without faith\u201d as stated in the scriptures. He nonetheless paid tribute to the departed colleague for his contribution in revamping the We Yone <\/i><\/b>newspaper to its present status. \u201cUnlike Kelvin Lewis and I.B. Kargbo, I did not have the excitement of working with Jon Foray but knew him as a senior colleague while I was working with the Wisdom<\/i><\/b> newspaper,\u201d noted Mr. Deavaux. \u201cJon had served as Acting Editor and Editor of We Yone<\/i><\/b>; we tried convincing him to rejoin the editorial staff of the newspaper but he preferred freelancing. On behalf of the We Yone<\/i><\/b> management and the All People\u2019s Congress, we express our sympathy with the bereaved family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making a statement on behalf of the Veteran Journalists Association, Fallah Ensah N\u2019Daema said they are remembering their dead colleague as a fallen soldier who fought for the truth. He however attributed the deterioration of the late journalist\u2019s health to his incarceration in the late 90s at the dreaded SS Camp. \u201cEvery death has a background, and Jon Foray\u2019s death started when he was incarcerated at the SS Camp in 1999. He went for treatment in Ghana and later, I was told, in South Africa; he returned home to continue his work as a journalist but was never the same again,\u201d Mr. Ensah N\u2019Daema recounted.<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of the family, Pious Foray said his late brother was a fervent Christian, a Catholic who had prodigious talent. \u201cHe was consequential and controversial but very consistent,\u201d said Pious. \u201cJ.Z. read a lot more than so many PhD holders in this country; he was well educated. When Dr. Alpha Wurie was singlehandedly handed the responsibility of writing the manifesto of the SLPP in 2002, he trusted no one but Jon to work with him. He was sometimes annoyingly confident and was never the same after he came back from his incarceration at the SS Camp. Jon died in the line of duty. I\u2019ll rather have this as a thank you from the family; but especially for this fitting and solemn ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Education Minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie, formally opened the Book of Condolence.<\/p>\n
SLAJ<\/em><\/p>\n Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n MONDAY JULY 22, 2013 \u2013 Members of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) paid shimmering tributes to their fallen colleague, Mr. Jon Z. Foray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,11448],"tags":[16558],"class_list":["post-59240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-jon-z-foray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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