Senegalese commuters hoping to read the news on their way to work were disappointed on Tuesday, as most national newspapers refused to publish in protest at what they see as the crackdown on press freedom under the new government.
According to the local Council of Press Distributors and Publishers (CDEPS), the media is experiencing “one of the darkest days in its history”.
The government, led by former opposition politicians, is accused of freezing the bank accounts of media companies and seizing their equipment after they allegedly paid taxes.
Officials justified the crackdown by saying they wanted to put an end to practices that led to financial embezzlement and mismanagement in the media sector.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye came to power in March after defeating the ruling coalition candidate in elections.
He came to power after the opposition led large protests demanding elections, which were postponed by then-President Macky Sall, in a move critics saw as a ploy to stay in power.
As part of Tuesday’s media blackout, newspapers were displayed on kiosks without content. The editions consisted only of a black cover with the text “journée sans presse” (French for “day without the press”) and an image of three raised fists holding a pencil.
Not all newspapers joined the protest – the privately owned Wal Fadjri newspaper called the power outage an “ugly scar on the cheek of our beautiful democracy”.
Wal Fadjri admitted that the press was in “crisis” but also said a blackout should be the last resort, as readers would lose their right to information.
Most radio stations rejected the boycott, but two popular private stations chose to broadcast music instead of the news.
Private television channels such as TFM (owned by Grammy Award-winning singer Youssou N’Dour), ITV and 7 TV broadcast news and show their support for the protest by using its slogan and image.
A few months ago, concerns arose that Faye’s government would try to restrict the media.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko drew criticism from media professionals in June after he warned that the government would no longer tolerate “lies” from journalists who he said enjoyed “too much impunity”.
Mr Sonko was the public face of the opposition and was not allowed to run for president. He then supported Mr Faye.
Both were imprisoned under the previous government and promised to tackle corruption and strengthen democracy in Senegal.
From 2021 to 2024, Senegal dropped from 49th to 94th place on media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom index.
The rights group recently urged Senegal’s new president to take action to promote press freedom, after years of “arrests and attacks on journalists, media shutdowns and arbitrary internet shutdowns” under Mr Sall.
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