Most of the Senegalese media joined the protest on Tuesday, a “day without the press”, warning against new financial and economic measures introduced by the Senegalese authorities, which they see as a threat to their survival.
Almost all of the country’s newspapers were off newsstands on Tuesday, and the two main private radio stations, RFM and iRadio, played music during the morning news.
Private TV channels, namely TFM, ITV and 7 TV, showed an image of the protest – three clenched fists grasping a pencil – along with the slogan “Day without the press” in a show of solidarity.
Some newspapers chose not to follow the movement, such as the pro-government daily Le Soleil and the newspapers WalfQuotidien and Yoor Yoor, a newspaper with an editorial line favourable to the government. The television channels RTS and Walf TV also did not join the protest.
The Conseil des Diffusurs et Editeurs de la Presse au Sénégal (Cdeps, Senegalese Media Employers’ Association), which brings together private and public publishers, said in a joint editorial published in the local press that press freedom was “under threat in Senegal.” Monday fair.
The association accuses the authorities, in power since April, of “freezing the bank accounts” of media companies over alleged tax evasion, “seizing production equipment,” “unilaterally and illegally terminating advertising contracts,” and “freezing payments” to media outlets.
“The goal is nothing less than the control of information and the domestication of media subjects,” the association said in an editorial from Senegal, a country bordering Guinea-Bissau.
Senegal’s media sector has long suffered from economic hardship, with stakeholders complaining of poor working conditions.
At the end of July, the editor of the country’s two most widely read sports newspapers, Stades and Sunu Lamb, suspended publication after more than twenty years on newsstands due to economic difficulties.
The “Day Without Press” comes “at a time when 26% of the country’s reporters do not have an employment contract” and “media companies are burdened with heavy tax debts,” in the context of a “crisis of trust among the media” and the public, according to the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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