SEPTEMBER 30, 2005
Posted October 13, 2005
Radio Télévision Sénégalaise
Disso
Hizbut Tarqiyah
CENSORED
In a recorded statement broadcast by local radio stations, chief caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacké ordered all three FM radio stations based in the Muslim holy city of Touba to vacate within three days. Touba is the center of the Senegalese Muslim community known as the mourides, a traditional Islamic brotherhood founded by Mbacké's father that exerts considerable influence over many aspects of Senegalese life. A ruling by the spiritual leader known as the caliph, while not legally binding, carries great practical weight.
The ruling affected the private station Disso, the local branch of state-owned Radio Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS), and the community radio station Hizbut Tarqiyah, all of which went off the air, according to local sources.
According to the independent daily Walfadjri, the caliph said he intended to "preserve the holy city from occult practices contrary to Islam."
The ban occurred several months after Disso became the first commercial radio station to set up shop in Touba. Local sources told CPJ that the expulsion could be linked to news and discussion programs broadcast by Disso, including a recent phone-in program in which several callers criticized Touba's elected governing council. Disso's director, Ibrahima Benjamin Diagne, told CPJ that local politicians influenced the caliph's action.
In the capital, Dakar, a committee of scholars, journalists, and civil society leaders issued a statement protesting a growing number of threats to press freedom in Senegal. The statement cited the closure of the Touba stations as a prominent recent example.
OCTOBER 17, 2005
Posted October 18, 2005
Sud FM
Sud-Quotidien
Censored
Authorities closed private radio station Sud FM and detained staff following the broadcast of an interview with a rebel leader. Police halted broadcasting at the station's studios in the capital Dakar and around the country. They also took away staff for questioning shortly after the interview aired.
Authorities also banned distribution of the October 17 edition of Sud-Quotidien, a newspaper from the same media group as the radio station, which published the text of the interview with Salif Sadio, a military leader, and one of the most radical members of the Casamance rebel movement, the MFDC.
The MFDC (Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance) has fought for independence for more than 20 years and low-level violence continues in the southern province, despite a peace accord in late 2004. Its residents are largely Christian and animist in contrast to the country's Muslim majority.
Following protests by local journalists and politicians the government lifted the ban on Sud FM, which came back on air late in the day. The government also freed the detained journalists.
However, the authorities maintained a ban on "the broadcast, rebroadcast or publication of the incriminating interview by any media outlet." The government said the Sadio interview was "in flagrant violation of constitutional and legal provisions on territorial integrity, national unity and public order."
CPJ sources said some of the journalists held were likely to be charged. Among those detained and then released was Sud-FM's director in the Casamance capital Ziguinchor, Ibrahima Gasama, who interviewed Sadio.
Sadio said he did not recognize the peace agreement, and that he would fight to chase the Senegalese "invader" out of Casamance. The interview also gave Sadio the chance to deny previous reports in the press that he was dead.
In 2003, Senegal expelled Radio France Internationale correspondent Sophie Malibeaux from the country after an interview she conducted with another hard-line Casamance rebel.