Media organizations in Senegal observed a day of news blackouts on Tuesday to protest against what they say is a government crackdown aimed directly at them and aimed at curtailing press freedom in the West African country.
Television screens on major broadcasters TFM, ITV and 7 TV went black, and radio stations such as RFM and Iradio remained silent. Most daily newspapers did not publish their Tuesday editions, with the exception of the state-run Le Soleil and the private, pro-government papers WalfQuotidien and Yoor Yoor Bi.
The move came as tensions between media companies and the government grew, sparking international concern about press freedom in one of Africa’s most stable democracies. In addition, Senegal’s main media companies have accumulated enormous debts over the years, threatening the sector’s economic survival.
The Senegalese Council of Press Distributors and Publishers, an organization representing both private and public media companies, claimed that the government had frozen bank accounts of media companies, allegedly due to tax arrears, “seized production equipment” and “unilaterally and illegally terminated advertising contracts.”
The allegations, published in an editorial in Le Quotidien on Monday, could not be independently verified and government officials were not immediately available for comment.
“For nearly three months, the Senegalese press has experienced one of the darkest periods in its history,” the organization wrote in the editorial.
In June, Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who took office earlier this year, denounced “embezzlement of public funds” in the media sector.
In Senegal, too, cases of police violence against journalists and arrests of government critics have increased in recent years, according to the international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders. It called on the Senegalese authorities to protect press freedom.
The organization, known by its French acronym RSF, said Senegal had fallen from 49th to 94th place in the Press Freedom Index – an annual ranking of countries that assesses several factors, including a reporter’s ability to work and safety – over the past three years.
“Journalists are not adequately protected in doing their job and politicians are not playing their role in this matter,” Sadibou Marong, RSF’s West Africa chief, told the Associated Press. “Worse still, political forces have jeopardized the right to inform and be informed.”
