12 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Senegalese government has decided to suspend the broadcast of the Walf TV chain for a week for its “irresponsible” coverage of the protests that broke out on Friday between the Police and supporters of the opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, last Friday in the town of Mbacké , about 200 kilometers from the capital, Dakar.
According to the statement from the National Authority for the Regulation of Communications, collected by the Senegalese newspaper ‘Le Quotidien’, the chain broadcast “on several occasions images of violence in which it exhibited adolescents, accompanied by dangerous mentions, including those made by journalists, in complete violation of their regulations”.
Tempers have been particularly heated in Senegal since a couple of weeks ago, when a court in the country announced that Sonko will face trial on charges of rape and threats to kill a beauty salon employee in 2021, in what the opponent describes as a political persecution.
A trial could jeopardize his intention to compete in the 2024 presidential elections. Sonko, third in the 2019 elections, has assured that he intends to run in the elections.
