Senegal

Senegal has just introduced a new law to replace the 2008 Personal Data Protection Law which was one of the first data protection laws enacted on the continent.

Compelling, in-depth investigative features are being produced by West African journalists through an MFWA programme support for critical, independent and high-quality reports on issues of governance, accountability and transparency.

Freelance journalist Adama Gaye was arrested for his Facebook post alleging Senegalese President Macky Sall had an extra marital affair during an official trip abroad.

Journalist Ouleye Mané was detained, along with three others, after sharing a photoshopped image that showed a naked body resting on Senegalese President Macky Sall’s chest.

Of particular concern to the media community is article 192 of Senegal’s new press code, which states that a district chief executive and other authorities can suspend a media house if a publication is deemed to be a “threat to the national security.”

“The government’s move to limit freedom of assembly is a worrisome development in one of Africa’s most democratic countries,” said Vukasin Petrovic, director of Africa Programs.

A publisher and a reporter were summoned to the gendarmerie in Dakar on 15 July and questioned for several hours about a report that Senegalese troops were being sent to participate in the Saudi-led military operations in Yemen.

Bassirou Faye was shot dead by an unidentified policeman as he was trying to escape his student residence, after police reportedly stormed the building. Faye had not taken part in the demonstrations, reports say.

On 29 August 2013, Le Quotidien was closed for three months, and its editor Madiambal Diagne, sentenced to a month in prison and damages of 10 million CFA francs (15,000 euros) for an article criticizing a former foreign minister.

Newspaper editor Moussaye Avenir De la Tchiré is reportedly accused of “inciting hatred and a popular uprising.” The Chadian authorities are also seeking the extradition of Makaila Nguebla, a Chadian blogger who fled to Senegal, from where he was expelled to Guinea-Conakry.

Privacy International submitted stakeholder reports to the UN Human Rights Council about the human rights records of China, Senegal and Mexico; the reports will inform the questions asked by the HRC when these countries are reviewed as part of the UPR process.

On December 18, 2012, a judge convicted editor El Malick Seck of weekly news magazine L’Exclusif of criminal defamation over a column critical of Sidy Lamine Niasse, the chief executive of private media group Walf, according to news reports.

Senegalese President Macky Sall pledged to decriminalise press offences at the 5th African Media Leaders Forum last week. He has also reportedly stated that media houses will no longer pay taxes in Senegal.

Ibrahima Diakhaby, a reporter of privately-owned L’Observateur newspaper was on June 11, 2012 assaulted by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood of Layène, a religious sect founded by the late Mame Limamou Laye. Diakhaby was attacked by Ousseynou Thiaw Laye, the grandson of the late Mame Limamou Laye and left him (Diakhaby) with a swollen […]

The law on parity constitutes an integral part of the legal framework of Senegal, one of the most protective and progressive laws on women’s rights.

The quick arrest and prosecution of a man who assaulted three journalists outside their newspaper’s office in the capital Dakar last month serves as an instructive contrast between the handling of an ordinary crime and the handling of abuses against journalists in the line of duty – cases which are usually politicised, stalled, or both.