In Senegal, reactions are strong after Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s speech to his party’s youth movement on Sunday June 9. The head of Pastef toured the government’s priority files without concrete announcements, but once again, the Prime Minister promised that those who spent public funds would be prosecuted, accusing the press companies among others.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
Opposition actors, but also magistrates and directors of press companies… In turn, the Prime Minister of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko targeted these actors. “ Those who looted public funds will pay “, he said several times, going so far as to accuse press companies that owe a tax debt to the state of embezzlement. Inadmissible for the president of the Council of Press Editors of SenegalMamadou Ibra Kane:
“ I refuse to let anyone insult me like a tax bandit. I am a business manager. The people who defame us are no more patriotic than we are. We are a specific sector, we need specific taxation. Our leaders have an extremely narrow vision, that is to say, they do not consider the press as a sensitive sector. »
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the press in Senegal has been warning about the financial crisis it is going through and calling for a review of its financing model, particularly in relation to advertising. Result, Alassane Samba Diop, the director of the online newspaper e-Media denounces a backlash in the face of promises that are hard to keep: “ The electoral promises they made on the cost of living mean that today they are in an impasse. Now they have to attack the press to make counterfeits, to try to distract attention from what is essential. »
The main thing being highly anticipated measures on lowering prices or even the announcement “ solutions to strengthen the press rather than threats » as analyzed by one of the great voices of civil society Birahim Seck who continues “ you are no longer in opposition, but in the position of providing reassuring and democratic answers. »
Same analysis from the opposition side which as a whole called on the Prime Minister to take action. Anta Babacar Ngom regrets that Ousmane Sonko behaves as if he were still in the ranks of the opposition. For her, ” the time is no longer for promises, but for concrete actions “.
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