July 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Senegal has warned the France 24 PARA channel to adhere to the country’s audiovisual legislation after criticizing the “biased information” disseminated during the crisis due to the recent arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, a day after the broadcast of a exclusive interview with the dissident.
In a statement collected by the Sanogo portal, the Senegalese government “is surprised to see, once again, tendentious media coverage of political news in Senegal for several months by the France 24 television channel.”
The note comes 24 hours after an interview given by Sonko to the French channel in which the opposition leader assured that the president of Senegal, Macky Sall, who this week refused to appear for a controversial third term, actually ended up “abdicating before the popular pressure”.
Likewise, Sonko denounced the legacy of the president, whose government has actually been “a dictatorship” based on the recruitment of “private militias” that are allowed to open “fire against unarmed protesters.”
The Senegalese government “strongly condemns this coverage” and recalls “that any press company must take the necessary measures to guarantee compliance with the principles and standards established by the legal, regulatory and contractual provisions in force.”
“Therefore, the Government demands that the France 24 channel restore the sense of truth and refrain in the future from damaging Senegal’s reputation through biased information,” the note stressed.
The Senegalese opposition has accused the president of orchestrating a harsh repression against dissidents and supporters Sonko, whose lawyer, Juan Branco, accused Sall himself and his Interior Minister, Antoine Félix Diome, of launching a “generalized and systematically against the civilian population”.
Tension in the country peaked at the beginning of June, with the death of more than 15 people due to the repression of protests in various cities of the country after a two-year prison sentence against Sonko for “corruption of youth “after being accused of rape and death threats, charges finally dismissed.
