Senegal: RWB denounces attacks on press freedom
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - While Senegal is rocked by clashes and protests following the arrest of the main opponent of the Senegalese president, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) on Friday denounced the increase in attacks on press freedom taking place in recent years in Senegal.
Quoted in a mores affair, Ousmane Sonko, the main opponent of the Senegalese head of state, Macky Sall, was arrested on Wednesday, March 3, triggering a wave of protests and numerous scenes of violence across the country.
The next day, the National Audiovisual Regulatory Council (CNRA) suspended the signals of the private television channels, Sen TV and Walfadjri TV for 72 hours, accusing them of "irresponsible coverage of the situation" and "flagrant violations of the regulations".
In a statement the day before, the regulatory body warned the two channels, and a third station, the 2Stv, by declaring to have noted in their transmissions, "repeated calls for a popular uprising by broadcasting images of insurrection".
Media have also been knowingly attacked.
On Thursday evening, individuals partially destroyed the storefront and walls of the building housing the premises of the private radio, RFM, and the daily L’Observateur, owned by the Groupe Futurs Médias (GFM) of musician Youssou Ndour.
According to information gathered by RWB, the premises of the national daily Le Soleil were also attacked by individuals who set them on fire.
Already on Tuesday, journalists were injured by the security forces during the dispersal of a rally, while Ousmane Sonko surrendered to a summons to the Dakar court.
Disruptions were also recorded on social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp as noted by the RWB office located in Dakar.
"We urge the authorities not to make the information and those who produce it additional victims of this violence," RWB West Africa office director Assane Diagne said in the statement.
"We call on the regulatory authority to lift the suspension measures which constitute a serious obstacle to the freedom to inform and be informed.
"We also denounce these unjustified attacks and remind the authorities of their obligation to ensure the safety of journalists and their workplace,” he added.
In a statement released on Thursday evening, the government warned against "biased coverage of events by certain media, likely to fuel hatred and violence".
Questioned by RWB, the director of Walfadjri TV, Moustapha Diop, described the suspension of his medium as "unacceptable and scandalous", saying that his television "only broadcast live the images of the riots in Dakar and in other localities in the country".
The director even assured that several meetings have been organized in his channel to emphasize the responsibility it had "not to add more" but to "limit itself to just and true information".
The Syndicate of Information and Communication Professionals of Senegal (SYNPICS) reacted strongly, calling the suspension of television channels a plan to decapitate the Senegalese press and all the attacks targeting journalists and the media as attack on the country's "system of governance".
The union called on the interior minister to "take all appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the media, regardless of their editorial line."
Senegal occupies 47th place in RWB's World Press Freedom Index.
-0- PANA TNDD/IS/KND/VAO 5March2021
