RSF urges the Senegalese authorities to restore the Internet, as it is a news and information conduit that is essential for journalistic work and for defusing tension and violence of the kind seen in the capital, Dakar, and other cities in response to the two-year prison sentence imposed yesterday on opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in connection with an alleged sexual assault.
Access to the Internet and social media has also been drastically restricted since yesterday, as many journalists have reported. Members of the KeepitOn coalition, which monitors Internet cuts worldwide, have reported problems connecting with WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via the Orange and Tigo networks.
The president of the National Audiovisual Regulatory Council said he was not responsible for the disconnection of Walfadjri TV’s signal – the third since 2021. Ibrahima Lissa Faye, the head of the Association of Online Press Professionals and director of the Pressafrik news website, told RSF that articles in Senegal’s Press Law that allow administrative authorities to suspend media are “dangerous,” “anachronistic” and “oppressive.” He also said the restrictions on access to certain social media constitute “a serious attack on democracy” and that the latest disconnection of Walfadjri TV’s signal is “an abuse of authority, pure and simple.