Rejoinder: Hearts News on the brink of collapse as News Editor threatens to resign

I write to react to a publication that appeared on your news medium last Tuesday February 24, 2015 which imputed that I, Kofi Safo-Antwi, Editor of HEARTS NEWS had threatened to resign from my position over the issue of unpaid salaries and allowances.

You indicated yet again that per your confidential report, I feel frustrated over the lack of logistics which the staff needed to work with. Yet again, you stated that I was unhappy with the sidelining of Hearts News' staff, when the team travels away for matches and that although I have complained to the board my plea has fallen on deaf ears.

You stated also that I had attempted on several occasions to secure payment of staff arrears, and that I was unhappy with the neglect I had faced from management. Yet again you indicated that, the club was reluctant in assisting me with the passing on of my mother and so I had threatened to resign. This and the others are my sore points.

First of all, it is true that my mother has passed on. It is true also that just like in many other places, (KOTOKO EXPRESS without exception), salaries are outstanding under the economic circumstance.

On the basis of that, I have sought to seek other sources of money to augment the little I have, to assist in getting mum a befitting burial. In addition to my normal work, 1 find time to go to people whom I figure mean well and are resourceful, to assist so I pay back in due time.

I, indeed, have gone to a few of them in the past weeks, knowing full well that my outstanding wages, added to what I already have, would not suffice. But in doing so, I have always had in my bag a number of plot documents on pieces of land I have bought at Kasoa, as collateral.

The long, and short of it all is that I have never threatened to resign my position as editor, either silently or aloud, let alone be disappointed with what you said was the neglect 1 face from management.

I know too well that the work place is not a fanciful dispenser of money, especially for a private funeral which has no correlation with the club, which is why I undertook to sourcing assistance from elsewhere, to add to what I have.

Before God and His holy angels, you would well accept that I have not spoken to you or your medium, and continue to wonder what this is all about, especially as 1 do not need to be caught in what is apparently a needless crossfire. I have no faction in Hearts of Oak and so my editorials and write-ups are written in good faith.

If my write-ups injure anybody to merit a whole reading of my editorial on a network just to punch supposed holes, I cross my heart in all sincerity that it was not deliberate.

There was this other point too of reporters being sidelined on trips away from Accra. That too, in all respect, is untrue. It has been the case that a HEARTS NEWS reporter and the camera man always accompany the team during away matches. I could therefore not have complained to the Board. In fact per our structure we do not deal with the Board.

In any case, to come to the conclusion that because I was supposed to be resigning my position at Hearts News, the paper was on the brink of collapse paints yet another untrue picture. My motto in the newsroom has always been one of anyone having to hold back work because, the supporter who buys the paper needs not be held to ransom.

Hearts News had been in existence for years without me and should 1 be taken off it today, this paper will not collapse. Just as I met it when it was handed over from my predecessor, so shall I do same one day.

May it find a place in your heart to grant me this rejoinder space per the same medium, in a bid to set records straight. I would wish in the future that in all humility, you trace real sources relevant to stories at hand so that correct pictures would be painted of events from time to time.

Kofi Safo-Antwi
Editor Hearts News