A Dakar court judge charged Zik Fm editor-in-chief Simon Pierre Faye with spreading false news on April 14 and released him under judicial control. On the same day, the Dakar gendarmerie questioned for several hours online broadcaster Source A TV’s journalists Omar Ndiaye and Fatima Coulibaly, and freelance news commentator Abdou Nguer, over their comments on the death of a local official. Nguer’s lawyer told local media that the gendarmes detained the journalist on false news charges related to a TikTok post that does not belong to him. The post called for an autopsy of the official. Ndiaye and Coulibaly were released without charges.

“Senegalese authorities must drop all charges against journalist Simon Pierre Faye, release news commentator Abdou Nguer, and end their judicial harassment of journalists,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa Representative. “Authorities should instead focus their efforts on advancing promised reforms to decriminalize press offenses.”

Police arrested Faye on April 10 for a post on his outlet’s Facebook page, later deleted, republishing another article on the alleged distrust of President Faye’s leadership.

Responding to a parliamentarian’s question about Faye’s detention, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said that “penal policy will now be zero tolerance” for spreading “false news.”

CPJ has documented detentions of Senegalese journalists on false news charges, an offense punishable by one to three years in prison. In his campaign, President Faye promised to replace imprisonment for press offenses with fines. 

Separately, on April 13, police and gendarmes stopped and questioned Al Jazeera Qatar journalist Nicolas Haque and his camera operator, Magali Rochat, upon their arrival in the southern Ziguinchor city, where they sought to report on the return of people displaced by the region’s conflict. The journalists were sent back to Dakar the day after, Haque told CPJ.

CPJ’s email to the government’s information and communications office was not answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On Thursday, the country’s High Authority for Communication (HAC) issued a directive that “invited all media” to “stop all broadcasting and publication” of coverage on political parties and activities of a political nature of associations, according to the HAC press release and news reports. 

The HAC’s directive follows a decree from Mali’s transitional government, which took power in a 2021 military coup, suspending “until further notice, for reasons of public order” coverage of political parties and activities of a political nature of associations.

As the country’s two-year transitional period elapsed, several political parties and organizations have recently called for a presidential election.

“Malian citizens have the right to be informed about developments at this crucial moment in the country’s political life and the press must not be prevented from doing their work, especially on subjects of such significant public interest,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “Mali’s High Authority for Communication must reverse its directive barring political coverage in the country and allow journalists to cover the news freely.”

Gaoussou Coulibaly, president of the HAC, told CPJ that the regulator was responsible for enforcing and ensuring that the media follow the “laws of the republic,” adding that the HAC’s directive aims to ensure that suspended political parties are not able to circumvent the ban by using media outlets as mouthpieces. 

The HAC will investigate possible violations of the directive and penalties would range from warnings to the closure of outlets, Coulibaly said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.