September 23, 2009
His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade
President of the Republic of Senegal
c/o Permanent Mission of Senegal to the United Nations
238 E. 68th St.
New York, NY 10021
Via facsimile: (212) 517-3032
Dear Mr. President,
The Committee to Protect
Journalists is heartened by your recent directive to the prime minister to renew
consultations with the press on the decriminalization
of press offenses in Senegal.
Yet your directive came on the same day a judge in the central town of Kaolack
imprisoned two journalists who reported allegations of local government
corruption in the distribution of seeds—a reminder of the urgent need for press
law reform.
According to an official
statement reported by the state-run Senegalese
Press Agency, you asked the prime minister on Friday to start talks with
the press. Also on Friday, Judge Mamadou Kane of the regional tribunal of
Kaolack jailed reporters Papa Samba Sène of private
daily L’As and Abdou Dia of Radio Futurs Médias, according to local
news reports. Kane charged the journalists with defamation, publishing false
news, and criminal conspiracy under Senegal’s penal code based on a
complaint by the regional governor, according to local journalists.
We urge you now not only to
decriminalize press offenses, but also to address a culture of impunity for
those who attack journalists and to review the police’s practice of
interrogating journalists who criticize your administration.
In prepared remarks
to your delegation in Washington
last week, which included the foreign minister and the Senegalese ambassador,
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged the government to “fight
corruption,” and “make every aspect of government policy and operation more
transparent and accountable.” However, since 2004, when you publicly called
for a reform of Senegal’s 1977 Penal Code, at least 12
journalists have been sentenced to prison on libel charges, while charges
against four others were dropped, according to CPJ research. In recent years,
government prosecutors have charged journalists with various penal code statutes, including “threatening
law and order” (Article 80), offending the head of state (Article 254), and
publishing “false news” (Article 255). The administration has resisted the
reform of press offenses, despite a comprehensive proposal submitted in
December 2004 by civil society members and backed by UNESCO, according to our
research.
Mr. President, we also ask you to review long-standing censorship and
intimidation practices, such as interrogating journalists and blocking the
distribution of information or views critical of your administration. This year
for instance, a judge blocked the distribution of the June edition of the
monthly newsmagazine L’Essentiel,
ruling that its headlines, which criticized your government’s performance,
risked “gravely disturbing public order,” according to news reports. On August
28, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Senegalese police interrogated
three journalists of daily Le Quotidien
for several hours, pressing them to reveal sources and retract stories critical
of the administration, according to the same sources.
Finally, we urge you to use your influence to address a
pattern of impunity
for those involved in harassing and attacking journalists for their coverage. For
example, none of the policemen involved in the June
2008 beating of sports journalists Babacar Kambel Dieng and reporter Kara Thioune have been
charged, according to local journalists. In fact, CPJ
investigations found that members
of your administration, supporters of your party, security
forces, and followers of the politically influential Mourides Muslim brotherhood
involved in incidents of physical
and verbal
abuse of journalists have seldom been publicly brought to account or
prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We would like to encourage
you to continue to take positive steps toward restoring your country's reputation
as a haven of press freedom. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
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