Senegal news bosses call media blackout over press freedom

By AFP

Senegalese news organisations have called for a national media blackout on Tuesday to protest against threats to press freedom and pressures faced by the industry.

"There will be no newspapers. There will be no radio or television broadcasts. News websites belonging to press companies will not be publishing," Mamadou Ibra Kane, who heads the Senegalese Council of Press Distributors and Publishers (CDEPS), told AFP on Monday.

Senegal's media sector has long faced economic difficulties and many reporters complain of precarious working conditions.

But many journalists in the West African country judge comments by recently installed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko as threatening their profession.

Warning of "one of the darkest chapters in the history" of its industry, the CDEPS said that the freedom of the press was "threatened in Senegal" in a joint editorial published on Monday.

The body, which groups editors of both private and public companies, complained that authorities were "freezing the bank accounts" of media companies for non-payment of tax.

It also condemned the "seizure of production equipment", the "unilateral and illegal termination of advertising contracts" and the "freezing of payments" due to the media.

Sonko, who took office in early April, denounced what he called the "misappropriation of public funds" in the sector, alleging some media chiefs were failing to pay social security contributions.

Speaking in late June, the premier also slammed news outlets who he said were writing whatever they wished without reliable sources in the name of press freedom -- comments which many in the media took as a threat.

"The aim is none other than to control information and tame media professionals," the CDEPS said.

At the end of last month, the company behind two of the most widely read sports dailies suspended publication after more than 20 years due to economic difficulties.

From 2021 to 2024, Senegal slipped from 49th to 94th place on media watchdog Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index.

The rights group recently urged Senegal's new president to take action to promote press freedom after three years of arrests and violence against journalists under the presidency of Macky Sall.