2023-05-29 10:31:09
Between President Macky Sall and the Senegalese people, the relationship has grown in recent years to a deep reciprocal hatred. Each gives it back to the other.
The people manifest it to Macky Sall: 1° By humiliating him at each electoral contest since 2014 – 2° By depriving him of the big cities, including the capital Dakar, at each local election – 3° By offering in an unprecedented way half of the National Assembly to the opposition – 4° By boycotting the President’s communications and events – 5° By making social networks his worst nightmare – 6° By raising his most radical opponent, Ousmane Sonko – to the top –
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Macky Sall pays it back to them in his own way: 1° By increasing unemployment and poverty – 2° By the marginalization of the national private sector and the establishment of foreign preference – 3° By the decriminalization of the looting of public resources – 4° By the promotion of anti-values – 5° By the confiscation of freedoms and the establishment of a bloody dictatorship – 6° By censorship in the media
The application of this last point requires the persecution of non-food press groups, the closure of certain televisions which show reality to the public, and the muzzling of non-corruptible journalists.
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It is in this disastrous enterprise that for several months Senegal has held the sad world record for the imprisonment and brutalization of journalists. Indeed, Macky Sall, in his quest for a third illegal term, already has 7 journalists imprisoned in just 7 months, from November 2022 to May 2023.
1° Pope Alé Niang (Dakarmatin). Guilty of being incorruptible. He got the ball rolling because he was the journalist who alerted the most in his time to the temptation of a 3rd term, and the one who communicates the most about bad governance.
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2° Pape Ndiaye (Walf Group). Guilty of being incorruptible. He was in the sights because being the one who investigates the most on the instrumentalization of justice for political ends
3° Babacar Touré (Kewoulo). Guilty of being incorruptible, of investigating white-collar criminals, and of enlightening Senegalese on many state lies
4° Serigne Saliou Gueye (Yoor Yoor). Guilty of being incorruptible, and of enlightening Senegalese on many conspiracies and state lies
5° Thioro Mandela (Walf Group). Guilty of being incorruptible, of refusing an audience in the palace, of expressing opinions which displease white-collar gravediggers
6° Maty Sarr Niang (Trade FM). Guilty of being incorruptible, of having helped clear Ousmane Sonko about TF 5610/DG of the Dupont family.
7° Modou Ndiaye (Bambey TV). Guilty of being incorruptible, of broadcasting on his channel the reality on the ground that the corrupt media refuse to broadcast
All these journalists were arrested in a completely arbitrary fashion, on the basis of accusations as ridiculous and draconian as each other. This roundup of honest, patriotic and incorruptible journalists is far from knowing its epilogue. It will accelerate week after week, month after month, as the February 2024 election deadline approaches, in which 100% of Senegalese know that Macky Sall does not have the right to participate.
In addition to these arbitrary arrests, journalists and columnists are subjected to assassination attempts, assaults, death threats and brutalisation.
Mame Biram Watchie and Pape Mactar Diallo (Walf Group) were victims of physical assault in February 2023, in broad daylight, by criminals operating with their faces uncovered, using vehicles clearly identified as state apartments.
Pape Sané (Walf Group), guilty of enlightening public opinion on many state plots and lies, was the victim of an assassination attempt in November 2022
Fatou Dione (Buur News), guilty of showing reality to the public, was the victim of a barbaric and gratuitous attack by the FDS in February 2023
Magatte Gaye (Agence France Presse), guilty of showing reality to the public, was the victim of a barbaric and gratuitous attack by the FDS in March 2023
This list is not exhaustive. But we wanted to limit ourselves to the last 7 months.
The Sall regime, which has turned towards a bloody dictatorship over the past 3 years, has therefore broken the world record in terms of journalists imprisoned. In the latest World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Senegal experienced the largest decline ever recorded by any country, a drop of 31 places. And imagine that this ranking of Senegal only takes into account the imprisonment of the two journalists Pape Alé Niang and Pape Ndiaye. What will happen to the next ranking which will take into account 7 journalists imprisoned, including 6 in the space of only 4 months?
Many other arrests of journalists are announced in the coming weeks, the monster having set its sights on retaining the Press Cards of honest and too independent journalists, to be able to accuse them of usurping the function of journalist at the lesser summons for trifles.
If these closures of private televisions and this roundup of independent journalists are so easy for the XXL monster, it is because the world of the press in Senegal has become one of the most rotten in the last 5 years. Corrupt press owners, journalists and columnists wage war on their colleagues who remain honest, patriotic and incorruptible. Instead of showing solidarity with the journalists persecuted by the Sall regime, the corrupt media push them down with each summons or arrest that they know to be arbitrary.
¤ How can colleagues support that Pope Alé Niang is accused of having flushed out hidden corpses that harm Senegal?
¤ How can colleagues endorse that Serigne Saliou Gueye is accused of usurpation of office simply because he has not yet received his press card withheld on purpose?
¤ And we can ask similar questions for each of the journalists arrested
Press groups led by personalities who claim to be close to power or to Macky Sall have turned into reservoirs of lies, hoax and manipulation, in favor of the Sall regime or to the detriment of the opposition. Of course these lies and these manipulations are each paid for on the back of the taxpayer
The majority of Senegalese having understood who is who, and to whom to turn for fair and true information, the Sall regime then tries to asphyxiate the non-corrupt press groups, or to empty these groups of their journalists by throwing them into prison. But the wheel will turn sooner or later. These corrupt media or press groups will disappear with the Sall regime, their leaders will be accountable.
MARVEL NDOYE
E-mail : [email protected]
1685356443
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