The Senegalese Prime Minister, Macky Sall, yesterday laid the foundation stone for a Press House for the Senegalese media. The Press House will cost five billion CFA (about two hundred and sixty million dalasis) to complete.

It is a six-storey building to be equipped with the latest Information Technology gadgets. The building will take 18 months to complete, and it will be built in the former City of the Police in front of the sea in Medina. In all, the Press House will cost the Senegalese government billion and 400 million CFA (Two hundred and eighty-one million dalasis).

Mr. Sall said: "I am very happy to be here today on behalf of his Excellency Maitre Abdoulaye Wade. This project is an important one, which shows the vision of President Wade for the press of his country. This is progress and a path to consolidate and to strengthen press freedom in Senegal."

He added: "Our relations are from time to time very difficult with media practitioners but a strong press is a need for a vibrant democracy. That’s why we want in our country a free and political press in order to educate people".

The Senegalese Prime Minister emphasised that his wish was to improve the relationship between the state and press fraternity. "I hope that this infrastructure will be an important gathering for fruitful exchange between journalists and communication professionals in Africa," he declared.

Mr. Sall traced Maitre Wade’s good relationship with the press to his days as the leader of the Senegalese opposition, saying that he set up a newspaper called Le Democrate, Le Citoyen, Takussan and in 1988 Sopi when he was the leader of the Senegalese opposition.

For his part, the Information Minister, Dr Bacar Dia, commended President Abdoulaye Wade for his gesture. "This building will make our press more modern, free and independent," he said.

On behalf of the Senegalese press proprietors, Sidy Lamine Niasse, the chairman of Walfadjri Group, thanked President Wade for the gesture and added that the press is not a mouthpiece of the opposition, as it is commonly misconstrued by the ruling party.

Senegal’s independent media receive every year the sum of twenty-one million dalasis from the government, but this has even been increased since Wade came to power in 2001. It is now 400 million CFA, not 100 million CFA.