“Off-air”: A masterpiece by Deo Gratias Kindoho

A newborn in the bookish universe of Benin. “Off-air”, Journalist Deo Gratias Kindoho's book is already on newsstands. This Wednesday 24 November 2021, a signing session was organized in Cotonou for this autobiographical book. The author of this book which recounts the setbacks that led to his removal from the Office of Radiodiffusion and Television of Benin (LOCATION), also delivered, on his Facebook page, the motivations which led him to the realization of this masterpiece.

Journalist Deo Gratias Kindoho has just published an autobiographical essay. “Off-air”, this is the title of this work of the mind that, in details, recounts the misadventures of a media professional, ORTB officer who struggled for a long time to perform his profession artfully. Since may 2019 where he was banned from ORTB antennas for no reason, the author has imposed himself "an internal exile" in the face of numerous arrests from people of all categories. More, two facts precipitated him from this exile and led him to recount in so much detail his inner suffering "caused by hatred, the acrimony of those in command ".  

" On the one hand, my employer's statement broadcast on national radio and television presenting me to the public as the abandoned employee, ordered to return there as soon as possible ", notes the journalist. He writes that there has been, the same, "The smear campaign that targeted me on social networks". "We entrusted the spawn to the service of the so-called rupture regime, parts of my administrative file at the ORTB and a bunch of lies to support the work of destruction targeting me. Various actions and behaviors of Office officials will follow., which will lead to my delisting in January 2021 », relate-t-il. So, he was drafted a ten-page memorandum in which, he is the genesis of his position within the public service. He then wondered how to disseminate this long memorandum without letting readers lose track.. In the end, it was one of the two lawyers who contacted with a view to taking his case to justice who convinced him to retrace his story in a book..

Sorrows but also joys

“Off-air”, is not just a book that just contains the account of Deo Gratias Kindoho's ordeals within the Beninese public audiovisual sector. It is also a celebration of his positive experiences and of the elders who made them possible.. The author states that before “becoming an organ of total propaganda, public broadcasting has been a respectable house with actors who knew how to safeguard the essential, against all odds ". The author also delivers in his work his vision of journalism and the public service of the press ; "A vision inspired by the flagship principles of journalism and the fundamentals of the mission of general interest incumbent on public structures such as the ORTB". He talks about "the close and even fusional bond" he developed with radio during his childhood and adolescence in Abomey.. For him, this work is proof of his “boundless attachment to national radio, and more generally to the Office of Radiodiffusion and Television of Benin ". It is therefore an essay that deserves attention in order to discover the price to pay to be professional in your work in public media.

Arthur SESSI