Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "The WELF TV headquarters are quieter than usual.
00:07 No surprise given that the government has blocked the channel from broadcasting for
00:11 weeks now.
00:13 Staff will remain temporarily redundant until the one-month ban is complete.
00:17 Moustapha Diop, the director, says he still doesn't understand why the channel was sanctioned.
00:23 "They accuse us of using deceitful, subversive language, but also of broadcasting images
00:29 of protests that depicted minors.
00:32 But the program that was shown that day was the same program that we have here behind
00:36 us.
00:37 It's a program which is broadcast on the radio.
00:40 There are no images involved whatsoever.
00:42 We're extremely surprised.
00:43 We don't understand this decision from the Senegalese government at all."
00:47 Following the ban, members of the public banded together to support the channel and the journalists
00:52 working there.
00:53 Adama is among those who came to the offices in person to make a cash contribution.
00:58 "I am an unconditional supporter of WELF TV.
01:02 The suspension of the channel is unfair and doesn't sit right.
01:06 Before getting to this point, there should have been some sort of dialogue."
01:11 At a press conference on Thursday, the government explained their reasoning.
01:16 "It's because of a report by their correspondent in Ziguinchor on the 1st of June, which claimed
01:23 that the army was deployed in the streets of the city to shoot at protesters.
01:28 The need to maintain public order, national security and territorial integrity justifies
01:33 the measures that were taken, in accordance with the law, to re-establish the peace."
01:40 Senegal dropped 31 places during the recent World Press Freedom rankings published by
01:45 Reporters Without Borders.
01:47 The NGO noted a rise in verbal, physical and legal threats against journalists in the country
01:52 in recent years.