Press freedom advocates and journalists working in the West African country say the decline comes amid mass protests over the arrest of a key opposition figure and ahead of elections scheduled for early 2024. “Once a beacon of press freedom, the country’s reputation has been tarnished by many factors, the most important of which being the multiplication of threats of physical and verbal violence from political actors,” Sadibou Marong, West Africa director of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders told VOA. Between April 2022 and August 2023 his organization recorded at least 20 violations against journalists “with various level(s) of atrocity, including unlawful arrests, attacks and judicial persecution.” Those incidents, “as well as the suspension of mobile phone internet access and the ban on TikTok, fuel concern about a decline in press freedom in Senegal,” the Dakar-based advocate said.
SOURCE:VOA