Senegal: RSF calls on future MPs to abolish custodial sentences for press offences
As Senegal approaches its legislative elections on 17 November, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the parliamentary candidates to commit to restoring full press freedom in the country. RSF calls on all future MPs to adopt four priority reforms as soon as they take office to protect journalists and promote the right to information.
Despite a marked improvement since the arrival of the new government last April, journalism remains a difficult endeavour in Senegal. Journalists have been summoned for questioning, media outlets face serious economic difficulties and the lack of dialogue between the authorities and the media has created many challenges for the press.RSF calls on all future members of parliament to pass groundbreaking laws to restore press freedom in Senegal.
As Senegal's future MPs will have the great responsibility of reconciling the National Assembly with the people, it is crucial that they fully restore press freedom in the country. Too many journalists have been imprisoned on spurious grounds, assaulted in the course of their work or cyber-harassed because of their publications or opinions. The economic difficulties faced by the media — and the close ties that some of them have with political figures — are not conducive to creating a healthy media ecosystem. Parliamentarians take urgent measures to give the public a genuine right to information. RSF calls on MPs to carry out four priority reforms as soon as they take office, starting with a vote to abolish custodial sentences for press offences and to pass a law on access to information of public interest.
In June, RSF published “Senegalese journalism at a crossroads”, a report that includes thirty recommendations to protect journalists, journalists, improve media pluralism, and fight disinformation in Senegal.
Today, RSF is specifically addressing future members of parliament, urging them to commit to four priority reforms:
- Abolish custodial sentences for press offences: the Press Code voted in 2017 provides for heavy custodial sentences for press offences. It is time to abolish them and guarantee that no journalist will be deprived of their liberty for doing their job.
- Criminalise the cyber-harassment of journalists: by deliberately targeting journalists, the perpetrators of these online attacks violate both the rights of the people they target and the right to information of Senegalese citizens. A cross-party parliamentary committee could be set up to examine the criminalisation of certain forms of cyber-harassment, and make the targeting of journalists an aggravating circumstance.
- Promote access to information of public interest: the law on access to information of public interest must be passed and enacted without delay in order to allow Senegalese journalists to carry out their public service work — providing information to the public — under satisfactory conditions.
- Introduce greater transparency in the media and their financing: more precise regulations on media transparency should be introduced into the law, especially for outlets that broadcast general information programmes. The law should also prohibit individuals with high-level public responsibilities (ministers, members of parliament, senior civil servants, etc.) from being majority shareholders in media companies.
