On December 5, 2025, Pape Sané, a columnist for the privately owned Walfadjri press group, was arrested, three days after he made allegations in a Walf TV broadcast about Sanna Manjang, who allegedly shot dead Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004.
In late November, Manjang was arrested in Senegal and repatriated to The Gambia, where he was charged with Hydara’s murder, as a key player in ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh’s “Junglers” paramilitary unit.
On December 10, a court in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, issued Sané with a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of 250,000 West African francs ($446) for spreading false news, his lawyer, Pape Sène, told local media, and Walfadjri reporter, Assane Gueye, told CPJ.
Sané alleged that Manjang told Gambian law enforcement officers that Senegalese law enforcement officers asked him, during detention, whether he had ties to Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his political party, Pastef.
CPJ's December calls to Sonko's office, and the Ministry of Justice went unanswered.