Senegal

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has written a response to a recent CPJ protest letter. While we welcome his attention to the issues we raised about press freedom last month, we note with great concern the president’s comments about the ongoing criminal case of two journalists assaulted by police in 2008.

A year ago last week in Senegal, two reporters covering a soccer match were assaulted with tasers, handcuffed, and abused by police officers after the reporters refused to halt a post-game interview at Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium in the capital, Dakar. A year on, Senegalese law enforcement has fallen short in bringing to account those responsible for this and other abuses against the media.

In the Senegalese capital, Dakar, speculation surrounded Air Transport Minister Farba Senghor after unidentified men using a government vehicle ransacked the newsrooms of 24 Heures Chrono and L'As, two independent newspapers. The attacks came just three days after Senghor threatened unspecified retaliation against the papers over critical stories. CPJ issued an alert on Tuesday, calling attention the situation.

In Senegal, a fiery debate over press freedom has been pitting the independent press against the government in the aftermath of a brutal beating by police in June of two sports journalists after a soccer match.

The incident, which came amid a flurry of threats and violence against independent media, triggered  protests actions in Senegal, and recently in Chicago, and a news blackout as well as the formation of a local Committee for the Protection and Defense of Journalists. In a surprising twist however, authorities have accused the victims of triggering the incident by assaulting one of the policemen, a claim ridiculed by journalists. A senior judge is overseeing the case, but a larger national and international debate about Senegal's state of press freedom is taking shape.

Last week, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) invited Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to speak about global climate change at its annual Unity Convention in Chicago, dubbed "the world's largest gathering of journalists of color."

NABJ's description of Wade as "a leading spokesperson for democracy and development" hardly conceals his poor press freedom record since taking office in 2000. Wade, the octogenarian leader of Senegal who endured decades of repression as an opposition leader and an ally of the press, has since presided over more suppression of independent media than his predecessors.