Political unrest and violence in Senegal must not be used as grounds for restricting the right to report the news, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF), condemning a TV channel’s 48-hour suspension, restrictions on access to the Internet and social media, and the ransacking of a journalism school amid widespread violent protests on 1st June...

RSF urges the Senegalese authorities to restore the Internet, as it is a news and information conduit that is essential for journalistic work and for defusing tension and violence of the kind seen in the capital, Dakar, and other cities in response to the two-year prison sentence imposed on 1st June on opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in connection with an alleged sexual assault.

The privately-owned Walfadjri TV channel has been off the air since yesterday evening, when its signal was cut as it was broadcasting a special programme about the violent protests. The broadcasting ban is due to last 48 hours. Access to the Internet and social media has also been drastically restricted since yesterday, as many journalists have reported. Members of the KeepitOn coalition, which monitors Internet cuts worldwide, have reported problems connecting with WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via the Orange and Tigo networks...

"Deliberately disconnecting Walfadjri TV’s signal and restricting access to the Internet and social media are flagrant violations of the freedom to report the news and the public’s right to information. Urgent reforms are needed to Senegal’s press law. We call on the authorities to end these draconian suspensions and to guarantee press freedom and the safety of journalists, whose reporting is more necessary than ever during this unrest" ...Director of RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau said...

Ibrahima Lissa Faye, the head of the Association of Online Press Professionals (APPEL) and director of the Pressafrik news website, told RSF that articles in Senegal’s Press Law that allow administrative authorities to suspend media are “dangerous,” “anachronistic” and “oppressive.” He also said the restrictions on access to certain social media constitute “a serious attack on democracy” and that the latest disconnection of Walfadjri TV’s signal is “an abuse of authority, pure and simple.”