Senegal / Africa

CPJ joined Reporters Without Borders and 76 press freedom organizations and journalists on Friday, January 6, in calling on Senegalese authorities to drop the charges against and immediately release journalist Pape Alé Niang, who is on a protracted hunger strike deteriorating his health. Niang was refused provisional release this week by a judge, his lawyer…

Protests against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were held in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and parts of Africa over the weekend, as crowds demonstrated against the magazine’s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, according to news reports.

Will China’s quickly expanding media presence in Africa result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on the continent–much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English service in 2006–or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda?

Last week, a judge in Senegal convicted a man of assaulting three journalists outside their newspaper’s office in the capital Dakar last month. The attack was not related to journalism, but the quick arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator serves as an instructive contrast between the handling of an ordinary crime and the handling of…

The Senegalese state-controlled radio and TV Corporation, Radio Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS), is experiencing an internal struggle for editorial freedom as Senegal moves toward a presidential election on February 26, 2012. 

Senegalese journalists say justice is not on their side when they are victims of abuse by powerful officials or security forces. I met recently in Dakar with journalists targeted with criminal acts in apparent reprisal for their work. In these two high-profile cases, CPJ has found evidence of political influence on the judiciary.

Fifty years after independence, the profession of journalism seems to have retained its prestige with the general public in Senegal. The Senegalese press is considered one of the most vibrant in Francophone Africa. It benefits from the country’s extensive democratic experience and the existence of a journalism school with a good reputation. Yet, because of the relatively unfavorable economic…

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.